Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jondepoer]

Hey folks,

My new contract in Gangnam (starting in Feb.) does not include an apartment, but rather gives me key money. In short, I will have between 30-35m in key money (combining some of my own funds with those provided by the school), and a additional budget of about 400,000/month to spend on rent. The school will provide language support, but essentially I'm on my own to find a place.

Let me say that I'm an empty vessel on this subject. I've been teaching in Korea for 2 years, and always had the typical apartment provided.
My basic requirements are: separate bedroom, and 30 minute commute maximum if humanly possible. I will be living with my fiance, who's also working in Gangnam, so the place has to be big enough that we don't rip each other apart in the course of 12 months. Having said that, I'd rather have a convenient place than a big place.

I'm looking for people who have had to find their own places to weigh in with tips, suggestions, warnings, etc. I'm particularly interested in hearing about:

- good locations I should look into
- what I can expect for my deposit/budget
- websites where I can read more about this, and possibly preview real estate listings.


Thanks!

[Devil's Harvest]

Consider dumping that key money into a nice big place in HBC or Itaewon. 400,000/month will leave you paying some out of your own pocket for most apartments comfortable for two people (with western sensibilities) in Gangnam, but will likely be all you need with such a large deposit in places like HBC. Your apartment will likely be much bigger if you move north of the river, as well.

As for the commute, the 143 bus goes from HBC to Express Bus Terminal and carries on through Apgujeong to COEX. I think the 421 bus goes from Itaewon through Gangnam Station. You can get to many places in Gangnam on those buses in 30 minutes in the mornings. Traffic on the way back may be worse.

[red_devil]

If you are set for living in Gangnam try less expensive areas like Seocho and Yeoksam. Officetels start around 10M key money but monthly rent is near 1M. Rent rates have increased in Gangnam. If you want to drastically reduce your monthly you'll need around 50M key money.

Otherwise in HBC or Itaewon you could get a bomb ass place for the budget you have now -- get a top floor 4bdrm place with roof access.

[Devil's Harvest]

[alistaircandlin]

We live in Sadang, which is on line 2 and I work in Gangnam, near Samseong subway station. It takes me about 40 minutes from my front door to sitting down at my desk.

Our place has a living room / kitchen, which is a fair size and two good-sized bedrooms, we use one for a study and the other as a bedroom. The reason we took it is that it is spacious.

The key money was 50 million with 500, 000 rent per month. We agreed with the landlord though to pay 35 million plus 750,000 a month instead. Lots of landlords will do this, if you don't have the key money, and let you pay the difference later.

Sadang is definitely a good place for commuting. If you really want to meet other foreign people though, you might follow the advice of other posters and look at HBC. The problem with this for me was that the commute is tricky - you have to change lines on the subway. Personally I don't want to spend too much time travelling to work. As DH suggested though, check out the bus routes first.

Otherwise, as others have suggested, Seocho, Bangbae or Gyo-Dae (The Seoul National University of Education) are worth looking at.

I think one advantage of Sadang is that it's fairly close to Gangnam but just outside of Gangnam-Gu - this keeps the prices lower. We can literally cross the street and the prices in restaurants are a bit higher because we've walked into Gangnam-Gu.

Finally, check out Nakseongdae? This is one stop west from Sadang on line 2 and will still let you get to work fairly quickly. The prices are good and there is quite a sizeable foreign community - I really notice the difference when I walk around there. It looks to me like a pretty decent place too. The only advantage Sadang has over it is that we're also on line 4. I wish we had checked out Nakseongdae when we were looking for a place though.

Websites - quite a few apartments come up on Seoul Craigslist. There are some places on naver, with good rents, I believe; but you need to read Korean.

[jondepoer]

"Bomb ass place" ... made me laugh :D

Alistair: did your place include any furniture? How are the monthly fees (utilities, maintenance, etc.)? Do you have built appliances like, for example, a dishwasher and oven? I'm just trying to get an idea of what 35m +750,000 buys.

Just to clarify - with my employer's contribution I'm going to have about 35,000,000 in Key money to drop on a place. The 400,000 is already out of my own pocket, so there's no way I could go higher than that.

Don't you feel like you're living in the foreigner ghetto in HBC and Itaewon? My first instinct was to stay out of there. I've spent a little time around those areas, and they seemed a little...depressing?

Maybe I'm totally wrong, and being totally judgemental. What do you guys think?

[jlee83]

[alistaircandlin]

No our place was unfurnished. We have been able to pick up stuff quite cheap though. Not sure exactly about maintenance and utilities but approx, 30, 000 maintenance and 200, 000 Won for utilities, I would guess. That means our outgoings on rent plus utilities are almost 900.000 Won per month.

I know how you feel about Itaewon and HBC, when I first lived here in 2004 those areas seemed pretty grim too me too. These days though, I'm starting to like Itaewon, and would think about buying a place in HBC in future. I would like to live there for a while; then I think it might be a decent investment and we could let to foreign teachers.

I've spoken to a few people recently who now live in HBC and they felt the same as you about the area originally. One of these teachers said she felt like the demographic was changing a bit now - she said that you are starting to get more young, middle class Koreans in the area and it's getting slightly more upmarket. (Or, at least, a bit less seedy!)

Although HBC might seem like a foreigner ghetto, you might appreciate being able to meet people with similar interests, have developed conversations and also to buy and eat food from all over the world. If you live in a place like Sadang or Seocho, it could be quite isolated. So it depends on what kind of person you are: if you don't mind spending a lot of time by youself or if you a really outgoing and will make the effort to meet people wherever you are, then I think these places would be fine. I imagine some people might feel a bit lonely though.

[Scamps]

www.nearsubway.com

[Lazio]

I also live in Sadang with my wife.
Our place has 2 bedrooms (I wouldn't say they are big though) and a relatively large area which is kitchen/living room. The whole place is about 13 pyeong or 42 square meters. (that's the actual size, measured by me, not what is on papers) Plenty enough for a couple I think. It's an older villa building and we are on the third floor. The place came unfurnished. The subway is 6 minutes away on foot. We have 20 mil. deposit and pay 550,000 each month. So the "combined value" is 75 million, exactly what you have. There is no maintenance fee and water is free.
I like living in this area, very convenient because of the 2 subway lines. Very short commute to Gangnam. Tons of street vendors, and a lot of cheap supermarkets. It's mainly a villa area, but there are many newly and recently built ones.
Nakseongdae supposed to be a bit cheaper but when we checked a few places there they were all small, crappy, dark, crazy uphill climbing etc. We were happy to find our current place, and I think it's somewhat cheap considering everything. I would surely extend the 2 years contract if the landlord would be willing to take more deposit money, but unfortunately he won't.