Renters wooed by New Stay plan

Nearly one-third of people between the ages 30 to 50 are aware of the New Stay housing project, and many of them were willing to sign up for it, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Amid sky rocketing jeonse (lump-sum deposit) prices, the government has come up with New Stay, a large-scale development where a resident can live for up to eight years with a rent increase of less than 5 percent each year.

This could give some breathing room to current renters, who are facing an unprecedented spike in rental prices. A growing number of apartments are seeing their jeonse prices near 90 percent of the properties’ actual market price.

The survey by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of 2,500 people between the ages of 30 to 50 showed that 28.2 percent of the respondents were aware of New Stay.

Around 36 percent of them picked the guaranteed eight-year lease as the most positive feature of the project, while 16.3 percent picked the cap on rent increases as the best feature.

More than 35 percent of respondents said they viewed the project positively, with 47 percent of current renters responding favorably to the project.

Nearly 30 percent of all respondents also said they were willing to move into the New Stay housing project, with the percentage going up to 45 percent among respondents who are currently renters.

Willingness to move into New Stay was more pronounced among respondents who live under wolse (monthly rent) contracts, with 76.6 percent saying they would move into the apartments, compared with 43.1 percent of jeonse renters.

Respondents with lower incomes were also more willing to move in, with nearly 36 percent of those with monthly incomes between 2 to 3 million won ($1,695 to $2,542) interested in the spaces. Among respondents with monthly incomes above 5 million won, 20.7 percent were willing to move in.

Respondents said they hoped New Stay would be close to major transportation stops (43.3 percent) and situated within environmentally pleasant areas (15.7 percent) with good schools and daycare centers (10.5 percent).

The average age of respondents interested in moving into New Stay was 46, with an average family size of 3.2 members.

BY PARK JUNG-YOUN [park.jungyoun@joongang.co.kr]