[Reporter’s Notebook] The warning in an 18m2 studio renting for 880,000 won a month

Every March, university districts start to buzz again. It should be a season when the warmth of spring brings new energy, but soaring tuition and housing costs weigh heavily on young people.
In Sinchon, Mapo-gu, Seoul, typical rents for one-room studios with an exclusive area of 18m2 (about 5.5 pyeong) are around 700,000 won a month with a 10 million won deposit. Some listings quote a maintenance fee of 180,000 won. That brings the total monthly outlay to 880,000 won. A 26m2 (about 8 pyeong) villa rents for around 800,000 won a month plus about 100,000 won in maintenance fees. An officetel of the same size costs 1.1–1.15 million won in rent, with maintenance fees of at least 100,000 won. To live alone near a university, people must accept monthly housing costs in the 900,000 to 1.2 million won range. Once food, transportation, and phone bills are added, the burden of living expenses grows even heavier.
This is not just a problem for students. Demand for one-room units around campuses has expanded to include recent graduates in their first jobs, unmarried office workers, and middle-aged people living alone. The desire to live close to work and enjoy convenient amenities leads many to choose small units near university areas. The relatively low deposit structure also fuels demand. However, the pace of supply has not kept up. As a result, the cost pressures created by this imbalance are passed directly on to individual tenants.
According to statistics released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics (KOSTAT) last December, there are 8.045 million single-person households as of 2024. They now account for 36.1 percent of all households, surpassing 8 million for the first time since data have been compiled. The rise in single-person households is not a temporary trend but a structural shift.
In this situation, the government is continuing the Youth Monthly Rent Support Program and has also announced plans to expand the supply of Youth Safe Housing. It has proposed support for rental deposits and an increase in public rental units as well. These are meaningful to a degree, but income thresholds and eligibility criteria limit their real impact. They ease some of the immediate burden, yet they fall short of reshaping the overall rent structure in the market.
The deeper issue is that policy debates still revolve almost entirely around the apartment market. Restrictions on transactions, loan regulations, and long-term plans to increase housing supply are discussed over and over. Given the high share of apartments in the housing stock, such policies are certainly important. However, as household composition rapidly shifts toward single-person households, the cost of small units such as one-room studios, villas, and officetels is pushed down the priority list. The result is growing inequality in housing. Managing the apartment market is important, but the small-unit rental market must also be treated as an urgent, core policy agenda.
en1302@fnnews.com Reporter