Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adobe]

I'm looking for information on the workings of Jeonse. How much would a two room cost outside of Seoul(roughly)? How does the process work? What to look out for...? Any educated advice/help is appreciated.

Adobe

[coralreefer_1]

That really depends on the area you are looking into. I live in a university area in Gyeongsan (next to Daegu and much cheaper) and jeonse around here for a 1-room apartment runs about $20,000 for a two year lease. (as opposed to wolse (monthly rent) which requires an average of about $500 down and about $200 a month. In my particular area, for a 2-room would be about 70% more than the cost for a 1-room. - In these figures, 1,000won = $1.00, even though that is not the reality. In the city (such as Daegu) it would be quite a bit more.

Now I know there are members on this board who are more informed about this than I, but I would advise that unless you have connections that can back you up(Korean wife with a powerful father, or some other Korean around you who commands respect), a foreigner putting up Jeonse is a risky business. Landlords are infamous of losing/gambling away, or simply refusing to give the money back at the end of the lease when it comes to foreigners..

Good luck...hopefully other, more learned members will chime in with better info.

[Spongebob Squarepants]

Not only does it depend on the city you decide to look in, it also depends on the area in that city.

Average jeonsae in Seoul is already high (think 2 - 300,000,000 won for anything decent), but if you look in certain Gu's you might find something for 70 - 100,000,000 won.

Daegu, Busan, Incheon, Ulsan, Gwangju and all other large cities will be considerably cheaper than Seoul.

My wife and I were looking at jeonsae in Daegu and it was just sad that we could find huge beautiful places there for the price of our wolsae key money here in Seoul.

Out in the sticks (cities smaller than 500,000 people) jeonsae should be much less than the above quoted figures.

Alternatively, if you are looking at wolsae (deposit + monthly rent) you could find some decent places in almost any large city for 20,000,000 deposit + 500,000 monthly. In smaller cities this will find you a 2-story house.

[Spongebob Squarepants]

As to the concerns about not getting your money back, even Koreans are sometimes wary about this issue.

The good thing is that you can take precautions. First you should go to the local Dong office and make sure that the owner of the place is financially stable (no outstanding debts with the place as collateral).

Second, if you do decide to take the place, you can get a legal paper thingie from the Dong office again that states you have deposited X amount of money with Mr. So and so. This paper guarantees that in case of unforseen circumstances, you are more likely to get your money back.

[asmith]

[blackjack]

[Adobe]

First off, thank you to those who have replyed. My girlfriend(korean, long term) and coteacher are willing to cosign/act as back up.

blackjack:I live in Chungnam in a city of about 150, 000.

Spongebob Squarepants: Thanks, i'll ask about that piece of paper.

coralreefer_1: Thank you.

If anybody else has anything to add, i'm more than happy to listen.

[Unposter]

As a general rule, cheonsae is 50% of the value of the apartment. If the apartment is worth 300 million, the cheonsae is 150 million.

In terms of wolsae, where you pay monthly plus a deposit. For every 10 million you put down on the deposit the monthly rent is reduced by 100,00 won.

Make sure you do a search to determine whether the person you make a contract with is the actual owner and does not have any (or too much) debt. You may also want to consider how easy it is to find someone to take over your cheonsae because as a general custom your landlord won't return your deposit until a new person moves in.

Good luck!