College students in Seoul, pressed by skyrocketing rent and limited dormitories, have difficulty finding a stable place to live. Without enough money for quality housing, most settle for substandard quarters.

“This is a very old town, so facilities are run down and there is mildew everywhere,” said Yang Eun-hyuk, a student at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Imun-dong, northern Seoul.

“Even for a dilapidated building, the year-long lease is 10 million won and the monthly rent is high. I don’t understand how the rent in this town is so expensive, despite the outdated facilities,” the 24-year-old told The Korea Herald.

Students suspect that house owners fix prices. In the area, a year-long lease for a studio is always 50 million, 60 million or 70 million won without exception, students say.

As students cannot afford expensive rent, they are forced to accept cheap, substandard living conditions. In a 2012 YMCA report on 526 Seoulite college students, 83 percent responded that they lived alone. Among the 357 who identified the size of their living space, 52 percent responded that their room was smaller than 14 square meters, which is the minimum space required for healthy living according to the housing law. And in gosiwon ― ultracheap one-room studios for students ― 97 percent of them live in a room smaller than 14 square meters.

The shortage of adequate housing is largely due to the fact that schools provide dormitories for only a small fraction of their students. In 2012 there were over 450,000 students in Seoul, but only 11.8 percent of them lived in dorms, according to Academy Info, a state-run college information website.

Universities are stepping up efforts to provide more dorms for students, but many prefer BTO dorms, or Build-Transfer-Operate dorms, which require higher boarding fees than those built and run by the school. In Seoul alone there are 14 schools that operate expensive BTO dormitories.

“The school has money to build dormitories, but does not want to spend its own funds. So the school borrows the money from a financial institution. The financial cost from this transaction makes the construction cost more expensive. Then it sets high boarding fees for students to pay off their debt,” said Kwon Ji-woong, president of the Min Snail Union, a student group from Yonsei University that promotes stable housing for youths. 

The average boarding fee for an autonomous dormitory is 110,000 won to 180,000 won a month, but BTO dormitories charge an average of 320,000 won, according to the Union. There are 33 private schools in Seoul, which have 120 billion won of accumulated funds on average, which analysts say is more than enough to build a dormitory autonomously.

“In the end, the financial institution gets business and the school gets a free dormitory building. But the only thing students get is exorbitant boarding fees.”

Such student rights groups demand that the government legislate a law that determines the minimum amount of construction fee that the school must pay, so that it does not shove off the entire financial burden on students.

“I wish the local and central government would build more housing for college students,” said Jo Bae-woon, a 24-year-old student who moved into a leased house provided by Korea Land and Housing Corporation in early 2013. The state-run institution is a comprehensive land and housing management organization.

In LH’s student lease program, students can apply for a house lease. When they select the house, LH leases the house from the owner and subleases it to student tenants in turn. Student tenants only need to pay a minimum monthly rent.

“But the program is so limited that being selected is like winning the lottery. Impoverished students or those without parents are prioritized. I hope they expand this program so more students can benefit,” Jo added.

The central government is stepping up efforts to establish housing welfare. As a candidate, Park promised to provide 200,000 affordable public dormitories built on cheap public property such as railroad sites.

For students, the government plans to build Happy Dormitories on public land and private university campuses to provide 25 percent of all college students, or 400,000 students, with housing by 2017.

The first Happy Dormitory in Seoul began construction on May 29 in Hongje-dong, western Seoul. Once completed in 2014, the dormitory will house 516 students at 190,000 won a month, over 100,000 won lower than the local rate. The government has selected 17 schools for the project, the first of which began in November 2012 for Dankook University’s Cheonan campus.

Seoul City government and SH Corporation also provide Hope Dormitory, in which they lease buildings and sublease them to college students at affordable rates. Hope Dormitory is a regular house built on government land that a number of students rent together. Students can renew their contract once and live there for up to four years.

The private sector is working to address the housing shortage issue. House sharing, which is already popular in Europe and Japan, was popularized in Korea when PJT Ok, a social venture company that began in October 2012, opened its first WOOZOO house. Now, the company has already established its fifth house and is recruiting tenants.

Park Hyung-soo, co-founder of PJT OK and management leader of the WOOZOO project, and other cofounders wanted to create a community that is a source of sharing, learning and interacting.

“The current real estate market is focused on the house owners, not the tenants. That is why there is a sharp increase in the number of studios, because it is more profitable for house owners. But this has led to isolation and emotional segregation of tenants,” Park told The Korea Herald.

PJT OK leases vacant houses, renovates them for sharing and then subleases them. Each house has its own theme according to location. The theme of the latest house in Hongdae is creativity, which matches the youthful energy of the area.

“We assign tenants to their house according to their characteristics and lifestyles. We even design the houses so that tenants will run into each other often.”

The rent differs between houses, but tends to be cheaper than local rates. Also, tenants do not have to put down a large down payment, only two months’ rent in advance.

Min Snail Union’s Kwon welcomes such efforts from the private sector, and emphasized that young people’s housing insecurity is a national problem the society as a whole needs to tackle.

“Society urges young people to receive tertiary education. But during education, we cannot earn money to enter even the rent market. Housing is a very urgent matter, and society must support its future generation.”

By Lee Sang-ju (sjlee370@heraldcorp.com)