Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cohiba]

My wife and I have been hunting for an apartment for the last couple
of weeks. I live in a satellite city near Seoul. The entire experience
has been a high stress, scary experience. We looked at a lot of
different types of places. Here are some.

1/
38 pyong apartment in a high-rise building. New. Nice.
Key money: 200,000,000KRW; Monthly rent: 0KRW
Note: Koreans have a love of cookie cutter high-rise
apartments. I don't. So, I didn't care that this was
out of our range.

2/
32 pyong office-tel. New, nice, split level.
Key money: 100,000,000KRW; Monthly rent: 1,000,000KRW
I liked these, but the price and monthly rent put me off.

3/
30 pyong 3rd story of a house. (Jutaek) Remodelled. Balcony
all around, mountain view. Key money: 60,000,000KRW
Monthly rent: 0KRW This we really liked, but an hour later
it was gone!

4/
30 pyong 3rd story of a house. (Jutaek) Not remodelled. Dingy
and ugly! Key money: 60,000,000KRW Monthly rent: 0KRW
How the price of 3 and 4 could be the same I don't know. I guess
luck has a lot to do with it.

5/
38 pyong 4th story of a commercial building. 1st and 2nd floors
are commercial 3rd and 4th floors are residential. Remodelled, real
wood floor. Incredibly ugly wallpaper. (pink and orange flowers)
Key money: 40,000,000KRW and 300,000KRW/mo. or 30,000,000KRW
and 400,000KRW/mo. We managed to get this one, but it was close.
Now were going to buy paint and remodel it ourselves.

Moral of the story: There are nice places out there at reasonable
prices, but you have to look, a lot! We also saw some cheaper places,
but they were absolutely disgusting, filthy holes that I wouldn't let a
Frenchman live in.

BTW: Colour paint can be bought at: http://www.kccworld.co.kr/english/

[xingyiman]

Apartment hunting sucks anywhere on earth that you live. I let my employer do that for me.

[justin moffatt]

Wow. You got a steal of a deal. We are looking at renting a 35pyeong new office tel (actual 20pyeong) with 40,000,000won key deposit, and 1,500,000won a month close to City Hall. Our second choice is a 22pyeong villa with 10,000,000won deposit, 1,200,000won monthly, semi furnished in Itaewon.

How many places did you visit before deciding? We have visited at least 10, and still are not much closer to finding any "good deals".

[Cohiba]

I guess we looked at between 20-30 places, but there were some that
I knew were crap the first 1/2 second I put my head in the door. In
those places I just about-faced and left.

I think, Justin Moffat, that you are going to pay more because you are
in civilization. Like I said, I'm in a Seoul satellite.

[bassexpander]

Not many buyers these days, as everyone is renting and waiting for prices to come down.

Just South of the Han River (1 stop from Techno-Mart) are a dozen or more huge new apartment buildings. They have sat empty for quite some time now. Nobody is buying. My coworker said you need to put 1 billion won down just to get in on one of the smaller ones, and that's just to start. It's insane. Builders keep building with expectations of making huge bucks, and nobody wants to buy. This is not the only place where apartments sit empty. Some day something has to give.

[Cohiba]

What!? A billion won is a million bucks. If I had that kind of brass I would
be out of this country so fast that the vacuum my body left in the air
would sound like a gunshot.

Why would rich people want to live in Korea? I don't get it.

[VanIslander]

Gee I wonder how prices are in beautiful coastal communities not at all close to the major cities.

[Cheonmunka]

[Ruraljuror]

Cohiba, what process are you using? Do you have a real estate agent, or are you going from bu dong san to bu dong san looking at the deals on the window? What is the best way to go about this tedious process?

[itaewonguy]

20 million key money and 800 - 900k a month in rent in an apartment building with grass, trees and in a new town is very possible,,
I dont know where you are looking but you need to think about moving out to Ilsan or seongnam, yongin suwon etc..

my previous history.. 2001-2006 Brand new Apartment 20million down, 800k a month rent.. 52 pyung.. kyunggido 40mins from kangnam

2006-2008- 20million down- 800 k brand new apartment again 47pyung
rent raise after 2nd year to 950k.. we left.. yongin 50mins kangnam

2008 present.. 50million down - 950rent.. 50 pyung, luxury apartment
same area..

so dude the deals are out there. you need to know where to look...

[brento1138]

I've looked around a bit. It seems Itaewon has the largest gap in prices ever. I mean, I've seen some monthly rents that are four times my salary, and I really wonder which foreigners are taking those... nice places, but damn!

Then again, I got lucky in finding my current place in Itaewon 2-dong... (small, but nice and modern) for only 3 million won deposit, and 510,000 a month. Perfect for a single guy, not great for two people.

You really gotta go to EVERY boo-dong-san and even scour the internet. It seems officetels are cheaper even if they are better, cuz, as you meantioned, Koreans do seem to like the "cookie-cutter" apartments. You will get lucky... the key is to be patient, and look far ahead of time...

[Harpeau]

We're looking to move out of our villa in 5 months time, and the thought of it is stressing us out. I wish the process was easier. Any tips would be most helpful. Maybe we could start a housing forum where people can write reviews of a place that's available in order to save time in checking it out. That would be so cool!

Cheers!

[Gwangjuboy]

Jesus, chump change. Seriously, nothing bucks. Try buying the equivalent in the UK - especially London. I have never understood the panic amoungst foreigners when buying property in Korea.

[sojourner1]

Some of those deposit key monies the OP mentions totals US $60,000 to $190,000!!!! That's incredibly insane! If I had Won 100,000,000 to 200,000,000 I'd go home and buy a modest house for that; maybe even something much nicer than a high rise apartment with a yard and a pond. Even in the small towns, deposit key money can easily be Won 10,000,000 to 30,000,000. The deposit on my apartment equaled an entire years gross pay!!! I'd be homeless if in this country without employer provided housing. It appears the landlords are given too much power in this country as they can over charge whatever they want and just come waltzing in on you anytime they want. OP, I'd be a bit concerned too. You might look in another satellite city. I'd have to be making a quarter million USD or more a year to even consider living on such a local economy like you're looking at. I guess this area is where executives live...

[Gwangjuboy]

Again,chump change in the UK, especially when shopping for apartments in London. I would imagine NY is expensive too. Don't compare Seoul to MO.