Weave Suites - Sunyu Parkside touts luxury serviced living in Seoul — without the jeonse requirement

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Weave Suites - Sunyu Parkside touts luxury serviced living in Seoul — without the jeonse requirement

Published: 10 Dec. 2024, 19:07 Updated: 10 Dec. 2024, 19:57

YIM SEUNG-HYE
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Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Weave Living's founder and CEO Sachin Doshi [WEAVE LIVING]

Korea has a unique system of renting a house, known as jeonse, where a tenant is required to give a lump-sum deposit, which is around 80 percent of the house price, to a landlord for, usually, a two-year lease. Renting a property through jeonse has been a traditional and well-established system in Korea for decades, but with more and more people falling victim to jeonse scams in recent years, this long-term deposit system has emerged as a serious social issue.

Sachin Doshi, founder and CEO of Weave Living, saw this as an opportunity for his company, which provides premium rental housing in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Korea has been a market that we’ve been looking at for about two and a half years. It’s a market that has a lot of the characteristics that make it ready for good quality, institutional-grade rental housing,” Doshi said in an online interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Monday. After witnessing Korea’s unique jeonse system giving headaches to more and more people, Doshi said it was “time to bring in a more internationally accepted way of renting.”

Living the high life in Weave’s new serviced apartments in Seonyudo

One-bedroom Luxe Suite in Weave Suites - Sunyu Parkside in western Seoul [WEAVE LIVING]

Weave Suites - Sunyu Parkside, which is Weave Living’s newest property in Korea, opened on Dec. 3 in the Yeouido Business District, located in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul. It’s the second property in Seoul, following Weave Place in Hoegi, eastern Seoul, which opened in August. Doshi’s company offers four types of properties: Weave Studios, Weave Place, Weave Suites and Weave Residences. Sunyu Parkside offers hotel-like amenities and services and has 157 fully-furnished units in seven different layouts, with sizes from 19 to 45 square meters (204 to 484 square feet).

The building is 14 stories high with two underground floors for parking. Weave Suites – Sunyu Parkside’s first underground floor is a shared space, equipped with a gym and yoga studio, golf range, meeting rooms and a large lounge where tenants can come down and work as well. There’s also a dining area and a large kitchen with ovens and refrigerators that tenants can freely use. There’s also an entertainment room with a projector where tenants can watch movies or sports games.

The shared kitchen is well-equipped for those who enjoy home-cooked meals with some company. [WEAVE LIVING]

Weave Suites - Sunyu Parkside's Yoga Studio on the first basement floor [WEAVE LIVING]

Weave Suites - Sunyu Parkside's roof top [WEAVE LIVING] [WEAVE LIVING]

Doshi, 44, who has been in the real estate industry in the Asia Pacific for more than 18 years, said he has always been “culturally aware and intellectually very curious about other countries.”

“To me, the greatest joy is learning about different places and learning about new cultures. It’s the most fun part of what I do,” said Doshi. But learning about Korea's jeonse system did not come easy, he added.

“It was difficult for me to accept that people have to do this,” he said. “I think it has created a lot of difficulty for people in Korea. So for me, from a business perspective, it was a huge opportunity to enter into Seoul, but on a personal level, it took me time to understand it because it’s so unusual.”

Doshi said, however, he is not here to put a stop to the jeonse system, but since the trend is changing, he hopes to “introduce more properties in Seoul that offer a more professional, enjoyable and seamless renting experience.”

Doshi said his company has been receiving a lot of positive feedback from early tenants as well as potential tenants who have come to look at the newest property. He added that the location along with Weave Suites’ premium offerings really elevate the whole renting and living experience.

“Making a house renting experience seamless and enjoyable is important because for many people, they are spending a large proportion of their income on renting a house. If it’s something that is recurring and something that takes up such a big proportion of your wallet, it should be the most pleasurable experience you have,” he said. “But right now, that doesn’t seem to be the case for most of the other players in the market. As a company, we are super tenant friendly. I think that really allows us to make a big mark in the Korean market.”

Doshi said one of the key aspects that his tenants find enjoyable is the “digital-first approach.”

Golf Room at Weave Suites - Sunyu Parkside [WEAVE LIVING]

A spacious lounge at Weave Suites - Sunyu Parkside [WEAVE LIVING]

“We have an entirely online customer journey, if the customer chooses. If you go to our website, we have very clear floor plans and 360-degree virtual walk-through. We also have real-time availability and prices, so there are no negotiations, no middleman, like the conventional way of renting an aparment,” he said.

“We want our customers to have full control. Customers can decide what they see, where they want to live and they can make that decision entirely for themselves.”

Weave Living was founded in 2017 and started off by opening up a property in Hong Kong the following year. Now it has 23 properties in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul, with many more opening in 2025.

“Though the properties’ offerings are quite different in each country, what is consistent is that there’s really high-quality design and a great customer experience.”

On top of having high-end design, what’s unique to Weave Suites – Sunyu Parkside is its location, said Doshi.

“With the property being located right outside line No. 9’s Seonyudo Station, you can easily commute to the Yeouido Business District. There’s a direct bus that goes to the Incheon International Airport. The subway takes you straight to the Gimpo Airport. There’s Han River if you just walk five minutes, and the Han River Park where people can also enjoy picnics. The location has it all.”

Expats make up around 60 percent of tenants and locals 40 percent at Weave Living’s other properties in the Asia Pacific, says Doshi. He expects Sunyu Parkside to follow suit. Because it’s an elevated serviced apartment near Yeouido, Doshi said it has been attracting a lot of professionals who work in finance and asset management in the business district.

Junior Luxe Suite at Weave Suites - Sunyu Parkside [WEAVE LIVING]

An Entertainment Room in Weave Suites - Sunyu Parkside [WEAVE LIVING]

Doshi said opportunities for Weave Living in Seoul are "limitless.”

Weave Living's first Seoul property in Hoegi, which has 98 units, has had very high occupancy since its launch in August 2024, according to Doshi, while a lot of potential tenants have been coming in to see the Sunyu Parkside property.

"That is why we plan to expand our business in Seoul, planning to introduce more properties in areas like Yongsan in central Seoul and Seongsu in eastern Seoul,” he said.

“Renting a house should be a lifestyle choice. It should be something you feel comfortable in doing. You should also be proud of the place you are living in. Home should be like a sanctuary where you can relax, maybe make friends as well. It’s available at your doorstep with Weave Living, and I hope all the new tenants in Sunyu Parkside enjoy the location and our premium services.”