MZ Generation: "If We Can't Buy a House? Still Prefer Jeon-Wolse Over Public Rental"

Korea Research Institute Survey... Gap with Policy

"I would rather live in a monthly rent or jeonse than move into public rental housing."

Among 10 unmarried young adults aged 20-39 without housing, 6 prefer general monthly rent or jeonse over public rental housing if they cannot buy a home. This shows that while the government is focusing on public rental policies to address the housing supply shortage, the actual demands of young people differ.

According to a survey of 3,009 unmarried young adults aged 20 to 39 nationwide, released on the 24th by the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements in the report titled ‘Housing Conditions and Perceptions of Housing among Unmarried Young Adults Aged 20-39,’ 60.3% responded that if homeownership is impossible within the next 10 years, they would live in general monthly rent or jeonse housing. Only 37.6% said they would live in public rental housing.

The main advantage of public rental housing cited by respondents was ‘affordable housing costs (66.5%).’ However, they also pointed out ‘difficult to move in due to eligibility restrictions (27.9%),’ ‘too little supply leading to high competition (27.1%),’ ‘poor surrounding environment or limited choices in size, etc. (22.5%),’ and ‘lower quality than private rentals and negative social perception (21.7%).’ While most agree that the price is cheap, there is a widespread perception that it is difficult to own and that its value is low.

On the other hand, the advantage of monthly rent or jeonse housing was ‘many listings allowing free choice (52.0%),’ which accounted for more than half of the responses. The disadvantages were ‘relatively expensive housing costs (45.2%),’ ‘burden of deposit and rent increases and moving preparations upon lease renewal (34.1%),’ and ‘the burden of paying monthly rent itself (16.5%),’ in that order.

Park Miseon, head of the Housing Policy Research Center at the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, explained, "The strict eligibility requirements, shortage of supply, small size, and negative social perception of public rental housing are policy challenges that need to be addressed."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.