A record 3.6 million young people in South Korea do not own homes
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The number of young Seoul residents who do not own homes has been trending upward since 2015.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
SEOUL – A record-breaking 3.61 million heads of households in their 20s and 30s did not own homes in South Korea in 2024, with nearly a million of them living in Seoul.
The number of household heads under the age of 40 who did not own homes reached the highest figure since the government started its official tally in 2015, said the Ministry of Data and Statistics on Feb 8.
The figure in Seoul rose to 992,856, which was also the highest on record.
The number of young Seoul residents who do not own homes has been trending upward since an initial tally of 799,491 in 2015, as has the figure in the greater Seoul area, which includes Gyeonggi province and Incheon. The latter surpassed the two million mark for the first time in 2022 and has since been increasing.
Just 1.29 million South Koreans under 40 owned homes – 666,640 of them in the greater Seoul area and 216,129 in Seoul itself. All figures were the lowest on record.
The percentage of young home owners nationwide and in the capital area was 26.3 per cent and 24.6 percent, respectively, but the percentage in Seoul was just 17.9 per cent.
A November report by the Statistics Ministry showed that only 24.8 per cent of 30-somethings living in Seoul owned homes in 2024, down substantially from 33.3 per cent in 2015.
Housing issues in Seoul – the nation’s most populous city – have been worsening, mainly due to rising prices.
A January report by the Korea Real Estate Board showed that the value of apartments in Seoul in 2025 rose 8.7 per cent from 2024, the biggest on-year increase since 2006.
A December government report showed that 5.3 per cent of households headed by those aged 19 to 34 were living in makeshift structures not intended for long-term residential use, such as greenhouses and shipping containers.
Housing appears to place a significant financial burden on young South Koreans.
According to the Statistics Ministry, the under-40 household heads on average spent 214,000 won (S$186) a month on rent, as at the third quarter of 2025 – the highest since 2019.
Those who took bank loans to buy homes or make deposits on “jeonse” leases shouldered 166,000 won a month in interest alone, which increased for a third straight quarter.
Jeonse refers to a long-term lease in which the tenant puts up a large deposit, nearly equivalent to the home value, for one or more years, instead of paying monthly rent. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
