Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Toby]

Can anybody offer some [i]sound [/i]advice about buying a house or investing a substantial amount in a house here please?

I am in housing now which is part paid for by the school and a small amount by me, but I am thinking about looking at investing in a property here. Are there any particular companies that work for foreigners on this?

Thanks

[Real Reality]

This site might have some information for you.
Relo & Realty Korea, Inc.
http://www.relo-korea.com/index.html
or
http://www.relo-korea.com/real_home.html

[BTM]

[Real Reality]

BTM,
Would you please suggest a company?

I hope Toby can find a good company.

Toby,
BTM does have a fair warning. You have to be careful because some realtors will charge a lot.

Foreign residents in Seoul are preferred over any Korean tenant by their landlords because they are paying several times as much as what Koreans are paying for their rent, realtors and industry sources say. For a 25-pyong (one pyong equals 3.3 square meters) apartment in Seoul, foreign residents are paying as much as two million won ($1,600) in monthly rent while the same apartment may go for only 500,000 won for Koreans.

Foreign residents are charged as much as 10 percent of their entire contract money, resulting in millions for realtors, partly because they are unaware of the law, but also because most of their contracts are untraceable.
The complete article is available at:
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200308/kt2003082818233111970.htm