English III 2021

Housing Types

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Housing is largely divided into detached houses, multi-unit dwelling houses (apartments, row houses, apartment units in a private house), houses in non-residential buildings such as shopping malls or factories, and residences other than housing, such as studio apartments and dormitories. The occupancy rate of multi-unit dwellings houses is steadily rising, while the occupancy rate of detached houses is steadily declining. 

Among provinces, Jeollanam-do, which recorded 52 percent of the households living in detached houses, is the only region where the occupancy rate of detached houses exceeds 50 percent. On the contrary, Sejong recorded 75 percent of the occupancy rate of apartments. Seoul does not have a high occupancy rate of apartments compared to other regions. However, in Seoul, the occupancy rate of row houses and apartment units in private houses is the highest in the nation, and the proportion of households living in residences other than housing is also high, indicating that the proportion of households living in housing other than apartments is high. In 2020, the top five -si/-gun/-gu areas with the highest proportion of households living in apartment dwellers were Gyeryong-si (82%) in Chungcheongnam-do, Nowon-gu (78%) in Seoul, Buk-gu (78%) in Ulsan, Yeonsu-gu (77%) in Incheon, and Sejong (75%). Of the 229 si/-gun/-gu areas, 87 had greater than 50 percent of the occupancy rate of apartments. On the other hand, the occupancy rate of apartments was low in rural and island areas such as Sinan-gun (0.1%) in Jeollanam-do, Ongjin-gun (3%) in Incheon, Yeongyang-gun (4%) in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Ulleung-gun (4%) in Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Gunwi-gun (5%) in Gyeongsangbuk-do.

In the case of the gross floor area of houses, detached houses had the highest ratio of the housing that has a gross floor area exceeding 130 m2, apartment and row houses had a high ratio of the housing that has a gross floor area between 60 m2 and 85 m2, and apartment unit in a private house had a high ratio of the housing that has a gross floor area between 40 m2 and 60 m2. Apartments had the largest living area at 76 m2 per household. Detached houses had the largest living area at 36 m2 per person. However, apartments, row houses, and studio apartments had a similar living area at 27-29 m2 per person. The average number of occupants per household was lowest in the studio apartments at 1.5 persons, followed by the detached houses with 1.9 persons, and the apartments with 2.7 people the most.

By housing tenure type, as of 2020, most people lived in owned houses, followed by the security rent houses, exclusive lease houses (a.k.a. jeonse), non-security houses, and rent free houses. At the -si/-do area levels, Seoul had the lowest owned home ratio at 43.5%, and Jeollanam-do had the highest at 71.1%. At the -si/-gun/-gu area levels, the ratio of owned houses was low in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and other metropolitan areas.