Korean Job Discussion Forums

dharmasister · Joined: 23 Aug 2010 Location: New Orleans, Louisiana

The apartments provided to teachers in Seoul (Bundang) are awfully tiny. Do they have larger apartments that one can rent themselves? Will a hogwan give you the money that they would pay for an apartment so that you can put it towards your rent?

jammo · Joined: 12 Dec 2008

yes. they should provide 'housing allowance' of about 400 smackers.

try and squeeze part of the key money (usually between 1-10 million) out of them if you can

good luck sire

wormholes101 · Joined: 11 Mar 2003

Hotwire · Joined: 29 Aug 2010 Location: Multiverse

You can get an old but okay 2 bedroom villa in HBC or the lower end of Itaewon for like 400 a month and a mil key money.

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

broken76 · Joined: 27 Jan 2008

In most cases if you're not planning on staying for several years in Korea it's best simply to take the apartment given to you.
You can request a housing allowance and in some cases the school will allow it. Housing allowance ranges from 250,000 to about 400,000 a month on top of your salary. Be aware you will be taxed on that as income as well.
Schools that are locked into long term leases may also request that you pay the fees required to get out of the lease which makes sense since you're the one requesting to move.
The main hurdle is the key money (Deposit). For most areas in Seoul / Bundang you're looking at a minimum of 5 million for a studio apartment which is probably what you're in now. The rent can range anywhere from 300,000 and up. If you want something decent it'll most likely be about 500,000 and up. For a single bedroom it's about an additional 200,000 a month. For a 2 bedroom it'll be a deposit of at least 10 million with rent starting from about 800,000 and up.
Then you'll also need to worry about furnishing the place as once you move out on your own the school is not responsible for it anymore.
Overall if you're only planning on staying a short term just taking what they give you is the easiest way to do things. If you plan on staying long term best thing is to save up a large deposit. The larger your deposit the lower the rent.

BoholDiver · Joined: 03 Oct 2009 Location: Canada

I always say if you are going to stay here for longer than 1 year, get your own place. Just one year? Take the provided place.

Right now with a tough market, it might not be good to get your own place. You my have to settle for a job a lot further away from you want to live.

Junior · Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: the eye