Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JungMin]

Has anyone built a house in Korea???

If so, where did you buy property?? Country or Suburbs? Ballpark, how much did you pay per acre?

What style of house did you build?? Concrete or timber frame?? How many stories, rooms, etc?? And again, rough figures here, how much did this cost you - if you don't mind me asking??

I have yet to look into it, just wondering how others managed and what are land, materials, labour, etc costs.

Thanks

[GoldMember]

Looked into it myself. Gave up. Why?
Finding Materials is very difficult.
For example paint shop with no paint roller trays, why, just dip the roller in the bucket of paint. Duh splatter splatter splatter.
Few buildings here have smooth walls. Yes plaster board is available, but the variety of cornices and architraves is very limited.
Plumbing, elcrapo quality pipes.
Flooring, tiles, plumbing. timber etc, all the suppliers are small (very) businesses with no economies of scale hence very high prices.
Tradesmen- You want QUALITY tradesman not the clowns you see who pretend to be tradesmen. Good luck if you can find someone.
Ever seen a smooth concrete job ANYWHERE in Korea?

[JungMin]

Sure, these are all things that people notice while living in Korea.....But builders need to have their act together somewhat. There must be some reputable construction dudes around.

Anyways, if anyone has any other info from experience, I would love to hear it.

[thebomb]

[thebomb]

I'm planning to do my own house in the next couple of years, when I have the capital. I would recommend doing a re-build/refurbish on a brown field site, rather then trying to construct on a green field, just the thought of trying to apply for planning permission, and all the crap that goes with it in Korea makes my blood run cold.

[RedRob]

There must be skilled workers here, I remember going for drives in the country and every now and again you will see a wicked deshinner housu. Once we went as far west and as far north as we could, until we met the dudes with guns, and on somebloodything-do (with landbridgee) there were a whole bunch overlooking the water, really stylee stuff.

I would talk to some good architects and see who they use/recommend.

[Homer]

We looked into it as well.

Near or in Busan.

We decided not to proceed and bought an appartment instead...the cost + hassle was just too much when considering building a house....

We will probably buy something in the countryside this year...we know someone who is selling a house in the mountains...a nice cottage type place and it is in our sights....

[RedRob]

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=92458&highlight=

I'm not good at this, but a poster here shared photos of his country house on this link? Really amazing restoration.

The thread was called 'has anyone ever brought a house here in Korea" if you want to search.

The guy was called 'bluelake', he seemed nice, and prolly wouldn't mind a polite PM.

[sojourner1]

I have been watching new houses go up during my months in Korea and they sure are very nice. They are all marble and granite and are very nice houses I must say. Yes, very fancy shiny marble and granite building materials are the order of the day here now with fancy gates. The trappings of what we think of as being rich executives and aristocrats.

The big flaw is they build where there is little or no space for a yard and space away from the neighbors. I am talking they will build this very beautiful house that is only 2 feet from the next old crappy looking house.

Why no go out to the country or a mountain and get a real piece of land to build on? Guess the commuting to work distance means a lot to people around here. Bali! Bali!

If you can organize a house to be built; that is design a building plan that utilizes what is possible in Korea requiring many years of experience and extensive technical knowledge, hire and supervise Korean contractors, then you have the language and cultural skills to be a foreign real estate developer. You are the man or woman with skills and the brains most could only dream of having. I would think it is truly extremely complicated to mastermind something like building a new home in Korea. If you are capable, you are special and deserve to make lots of money doing it for a living for it requires, to my imagination, a great deal of research, special skills, and commitment.

Just the act of buying existing property would be a really huge formidable challenge I would guess. Not because people won't accept you, but because it requires lots of specific knowledge, skills, and abilities to do these sorts of things.

If I were looking to own a piece of Korea, I would look for an old country/rural traditional type of place like the previous poster shows from another thread that foreigner owns with his Korean wife. Of course, the wife is what comes in real handy for most guys in Korea for the long term.

[JungMin]

That has crossed my mind. I have a degree in Civil Engineering and have been involved in the design and construction of several houses in Canada.

I remember reading BlueLake's post about his restoration project. Very interesting, and it seems like it turned out very nice!! This has crossed my mind....Some old houses in the country are very beautiful, have nice yards, and beautiful views. Most would need a lot of work to make them energy efficient, but that is right up my alley.

Just recently, the thought of living in the country has been really eating at me. I am getting tired of the city and was curious of others success stories building a place of their own.

[Donkey Beer]

Rednecks just can't do a good job of making houses. It requires a lot of planning and you can't always be hungover on soju when doing work on the house.

As we all know, they're not very good at planning anything so why would you expect them to succeed in planning + building your house? Unless you only need a shack, you got another thing coming!

[PRagic]

Not sure, but I think the going build rate is around 3 million won/pyoung. We picked up a chunk of land when the financial crisis hit, and might build on it a few years down the line. The plan would to be sell about 3/4 of the land and use the money to build.

If anyone is or has built, it would be great to get your input.

[JungMin]