It Takes Saving 13 Years of Salary to Own a Home in Seoul

[2023 Housing Survey] Seoul PIR, 15.2x → 13x
Homeownership Rate Decreases to 60.7%...Increase in Newlyweds and Youth Occupancy Rates

A survey revealed that it takes 13 years of saving every penny of one's salary to buy a house in Seoul. The period has shortened by about two years compared to the previous year, which is attributed to the decline in housing prices due to factors such as high interest rates. Although the homeownership rate decreased nationwide, the increase in home residence among newlyweds and young people drew attention.

View of downtown apartments from Inwangsan Mountain in Seoul / Photo by Yonhap News

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the results of the "2023 Housing Survey" on the 27th. The housing survey is an annual sample survey conducted to understand overall aspects of the public's housing life and to provide reference for housing policy formulation. This survey was conducted on 61,000 households nationwide.

The time required to save a salary to buy a home in Seoul has shortened. The Price Income Ratio (PIR), which is the ratio of housing price to annual income of owner-occupied households, was 13 times (median) in Seoul last year, slightly down from 15.2 times the previous year. PIR indicates the time it takes to buy a house by saving without spending any salary. During the same period, the PIR in the metropolitan area decreased from 9.3 times to 8.5 times, and in metropolitan cities and others from 6.8 times to 6.3 times. Nationwide, the PIR remained at 6.3 times, the same as the previous year, and among the 17 cities and provinces, only Gyeongbuk (3.4 times) and Gyeongnam (4.5 times) saw an increase in PIR.

This was influenced by the decline in housing prices due to factors such as high interest rates at the time of the survey. PIR is calculated based on housing prices surveyed in June each year. In Seoul, the PIR was 14.1 times in 2021 and increased to 15.2 times in 2022 when housing prices were rising.

The nationwide homeownership rate was 60.7%, down 0.6 percentage points from 61.3% the previous year. This refers to the proportion of households owning homes regardless of actual residence. The homeownership rate in the metropolitan area decreased from 55.8% to 55.1%, and in metropolitan cities and others from 62.8% to 62.3%. On the other hand, the home occupancy rate, which indicates the proportion of owner-occupied households actually residing in their homes, decreased by 0.1 percentage points nationwide to 57.4%. The proportion of rental households remained the same at 38.8%. However, the home occupancy rate among newlyweds increased by 2.8 percentage points from 43.6% to 46.4% last year. Among youth (aged 19-34), the home occupancy rate also expanded from 13.2% to 14.6% during the same period.

In terms of housing quality, the proportion of households below the minimum housing standard last year was 3.6%, 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 36.0㎡ from 34.8㎡ the previous year. The most needed housing support programs were home purchase loan support (35.6%), jeonse loan support (24.6%), monthly rent subsidy support (11.0%), and long-term public rental housing supply (10.7%), in that order of response rates.

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