Korean Job Discussion Forums

Mikhai · Joined: 20 Jan 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Does anyone know about renting your own place? Any suggestions on places to look? Prices? How much deposit should you have?

KittyLover · Joined: 20 May 2006

Never tried it, but I remember walking past a couple of agencies near Itaewon that seemed geared toward foreigners.

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

PRagic · Joined: 24 Feb 2006

In Itaewon, around NokSaPyoung Station, you can rent relatively cheaply. I had a couple of buddies in a 3 bedroom, large 38 pyung place that were paying 10 million down and 1.2 million a month. Have some other friends in 18-22 pyung places with killer roof-tops paying 5 million down and under 700K a month. Stick to your budget, shop around, take your time, and don't settle.

If you have the coin, you could also look for 'key money'/'chunsae' deals. You put a big lump sum up front and get it all back when you move out at the end of a contract. Safe as long as you run the paperwork on the building and have stand-up owners. We're now in a place for chunsae at 150 million. No rent by the month, and we lose about 600K a month in lost interest. By contrast, the place would cost well over 1.5 million a month to rent by the month. The downside is that you have to come up with the 150 grand U.S. to do it!

Good luck.

ellamarie · Joined: 16 Mar 2006

Mikhai wrote:

braunshade · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Location: Somewhere better!

Your new job will likely pay the deposit for you. You may or may not be responsible for your rental payments depending upon your contract with your employer.

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

Mikhai · Joined: 20 Jan 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

I know people who rented without putting down that much key money. Do you have any ideas if there are lots of places that rent with just a month or two security deposit? Mind you they aren't Kensington Palace either. But decent.

Tiger Beer · Joined: 07 Feb 2003

Zyzyfer · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 12:51 am Post subject:

Haebangchon, Gyungnidan, and Itaewon (all the same general area) do 2 and 3 "room" apartments for decent prices. If your school gives you a housing allowance on top of pay or you have a high salary (2.6 million a month or up, I'd say), it's a good area to set up your own fort. By rooms, it's necessary to know that Korean apartments generally have a big room that is like a kitchen/dining room/main area, and then smaller offshoot rooms.

The places generally run between 1 million and 5 million won down and the rent can be anywhere from 300,000 a month to a few million. You can get roommates and go for the expensive ones, which will be pretty nice, or you can go smaller and live alone. I got a big discount on rent with my place and managed to get a sprawling place for a decent price. There are a lot of scuzzy apartments out there, though, and price isn't necessarily indicative of quality.

If you're coming over here for your first time, though, I would not suggest getting your own place unless you intend to be here for a while. The benefits of having your own place over what your job can provide are basically not worrying about being homeless if your job falls through and you're looking for a new one, and having more say in where you live. It can be a challenge to know if you've got a decent place or not in front of you, though. Look at a LOT of places before you decide on one.

Other areas in Seoul tend to be more expensive and fall in the previously mentioned price ranges.