Gov’t offers low-rent homes for students

Low-income college students and young job seekers will soon be eligible for affordable housing in certain neighborhoods.

The government said Sunday that it will accept applications for students and recent graduates who wish to rent apartments that are 50 to 70 percent lower than the market rate from Feb. 26 to March 2.

Eligible applicants might include a college graduate from a low-income family who is studying for the civil service exam but can’t afford rent of 450,000 won ($415) a month in Seoul. Or it might include a Daegu high school student who was recently accepted to a university in Seoul but can’t afford monthly rent of 400,000 won in a college neighborhood.

The government will be supplying a total of 430 low-rent apartments: 274 units in the Seoul metropolitan area, including 129 in Seoul alone, and 156 units in other cities including Busan, Daegu and Daejeon.

Apartments in the Seoul metropolitan area account for 64 percent of the apartments.

The affordable housing will be supplied by the government, which recently purchased the units through the Korea Land and Housing Corporation.

As an example, an applicant who wins an apartment with a market value of 150 million won can pay 240,000 won monthly rent with a deposit of 1 million won.

Chosen applicants will live in the apartments on two-year leases that can be renewed for another two years twice more if they wish. That means they can live in the same apartment with low rent for a maximum of six years.

The government will consider applicants who have either graduated from high school or college within the last two years and are still searching for a job.

People at the top of the priority list will include children of parents who are recipients of government welfare. Also on the priority list will be families living in cities but whose monthly income is 50 percent less than average.

Last month, the government pledged to supply a total of 20,000 housing units to young people and newlyweds, with the goal of putting out 10,000 this year.

The cluster includes 540 for young people, 2,900 for newlyweds and 7,100 for low-income families.

“Following the first supply [in March], we plan to put up a notice in accepting the second group [of young people] in June,” said an official from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. “We plan to provide low-rent housing customized to each person’s situation and stage in life, including those that are just starting out in society, newlyweds and senior citizens.”

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]