Oh Se-hoon discusses housing stability with college students... “Support for management expenses and speed of youth housing”

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon met with college students on the 12th and discussed supporting monthly rent and management fees to stabilize housing for young people, and providing safe housing for young people.

On this day, Mayor Oh held a ‘College Student Housing Stability Round Table’ at Dongguk University’s Wonheung Hall.

University students, landlords, and experts participated at the site.

College students complained that as monthly rent and management fees rose, they had to find narrower, older housing or increase their part-time work hours.

Accordingly, Mayor Oh announced that he will continue to support monthly rent for young people and push for management fee support starting in the second half of next year.

In addition, it was explained that the budget to provide interest-free support for youth safe housing deposits of up to 45 million won was reflected in next year's budget.

Previously, in 2020, the city of Seoul began providing monthly rent support to 5,000 people, and supported 32,000 people this year, following 36,000 in 2022 and 44,000 in 2024.

In addition, the income standard was relaxed from 120% to 150% or less of the median income in 2021, and the deposit for target homes was relaxed from 50 million won to 80 million won or less in 2024.

In addition, Seoul City announced measures to stabilize youth housing in March and set a goal of supplying 74,000 homes customized for each stage of life over the next five years by 2030.

As of the end of September, 11,000 units were supplied, achieving 84% of this year's target (13,000 units).

Youth housing is classified into 12 categories, and so far, 7,586 youth safe houses and 2,565 Mirinae houses have been supplied. Starting next year, new projects such as Seoul-style Sprout studio apartments and shared housing will be promoted.

At this roundtable, plans to supply Seoul-style shared housing, a customized residential space for college students, were discussed.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to promote the project in various ways, including purchase lease, donation, public-private cooperation, and private lease, with the goal of supplying 6,000 units by 2030.

This year, the purchase deliberation for 540 units, which is more than twice the public purchase target of 250 units, has been completed, and a purchase agreement is scheduled to be signed by the end of the year.

In addition, a plan was also proposed to create sports and cultural facilities and open the attached parking lot and restaurants to the local community.

We are also speeding up the new project ‘Youth Future Town’, which was planned together with the G3 Balanced Development Committee.

The plan is to promote the former National Institutes of Health site as a lead project and build four target sites, including the Shinnae Vehicle Base, Search Vehicle Base, and Tancheon Water Reclamation Center, in stages in accordance with regional characteristics and development conditions.

On this day, there was an opinion among landlords and experts that since the issue of jeonse fraud occurred in 2022, the requirements for signing up for guarantee insurance have been strengthened and small studio apartments have been rented out on a monthly basis.

They also called for easing regulations to lower monthly rent, saying that strengthened regulations, such as heavy taxes on those who own multiple homes, are putting pressure on monthly rent increases.

Mayor Oh Se-hoon said, “We created this event because we believe that your vivid voices, from young people to landlords to experts, should be reflected in policies,” and promised, “The opinions you gave today will be incorporated into the housing policy that Seoul City is pursuing.”

He continued, “We will ensure that housing for young people is continuously supplied so that the housing ladder for young people can be restored, and we will pursue thorough support for housing costs.”