"8 out of 10 Young Adults Say 'I Want to Own a Home' While Renting"

Ministry of Land Announces '2022 Housing Survey' Results
Youth Homeownership Rate at 14.7%... Government Support Needed
Buying a House in Seoul Requires Saving Entire Salary for 15 Years

While 80% of young households want to own their own home, the homeownership rate is only in the 10% range. Amid this, a survey revealed that to buy a house in Seoul, one would have to save their entire salary without spending a single penny for 15 years.

According to the '2022 Housing Survey' announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 22nd, 89.6% of all households responded that they should own their own home. This is an increase of 0.7 percentage points compared to the previous year (88.9%).

By household characteristics, 79.2% of young households and 92.0% of newlywed households showed a strong desire to own a home. However, the homeownership rates were low at 14.7% and 49.0%, respectively. In particular, most young households live as tenants (82.5%), increasing the need for government support for homeownership.

The time required to own a home has shortened. Last year, the Price Income Ratio (PIR) of housing price to annual income for homeowner households nationwide was 6.3 times (median), slightly down from 6.7 times the previous year. PIR refers to the time it takes to buy a house by saving all of one’s salary without spending any. In the metropolitan area, it decreased from 10.1 times to 9.3 times, and in metropolitan cities and others, from 7.1 times to 6.8 times.

However, there is a large variation by city and province, with Seoul’s PIR rising from 14.1 times to 15.2 times. Based on June of last year, when housing prices were rising, it became more difficult to own a home in Seoul. The regions with the next highest PIR after Seoul were Sejong (9.3 times) and Gyeonggi (8.9 times).

The time it takes to purchase a first home in one’s lifetime was 7.4 years, down from 7.7 years in 2021. Also, the proportion of households owning homes nationwide was 61.3%, up from 60.6% the previous year. The metropolitan area (54.7%→55.8%), metropolitan cities and others (62.0%→62.8%), and provincial areas (69.0%→69.1%) all showed an increasing trend.

In terms of housing quality, the proportion of households below the minimum housing standard last year was 3.9%, the lowest ever recorded. The minimum housing standard refers to the minimum requirements for citizens to live comfortably and well. The residential area per person also increased to 34.8㎡, up from 33.9㎡ the previous year.

The most needed housing support programs were home purchase loan support (34.6%), jeonse (long-term deposit lease) loan support (24.6%), long-term public rental housing supply (11.6%), and monthly rent subsidy support (11.5%), in that order of response rate. Satisfaction with programs was high, with 96.0% of households living in public rental housing expressing satisfaction. Reasons for satisfaction included affordable rent (50.4%) and not having to move frequently (38.1%).

Meanwhile, this survey was conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, commissioned to the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements and Korea Research, through individual interviews with a nationwide sample of 51,000 households. The Ministry conducts the housing survey annually to collect basic data related to the national housing environment, housing mobility, and household characteristics.

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