[Beginner's Guide to Home Renovation] Balcony Expansion Now a Must... How Is It Different from Veranda and Terrace?

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] When you become a real estate reporter, you sometimes get unexpected KakaoTalk messages from friends. "How do I apply for a housing subscription?" "What does first priority mean?" For the 2030 'Burin-i (Real Estate + Beginner)' who only have subscription accounts created by their parents when they were young, I am trying to create a guide.

One of the things you must check when applying for an apartment subscription is the cost of balcony expansion. Recently, most model houses assume balcony expansion from the sample houses, and some even offer free balcony expansion, allowing buyers to choose non-expansion as a negative option, making it seem like an essential option.

However, balcony expansion was illegal before 2005. Although balcony expansions like the ones today were quite common even before then, they were all illegal. Still, because balconies, which were often just used as storage in small homes, could be incorporated as part of the living room or bedroom, making the home feel larger, balcony expansions have been done quietly over time.

Since these expansions were not built as part of the original construction, spaces with balcony expansions often had many drawbacks such as boilers not being properly installed or walls not being properly insulated, leading to condensation or mold. Nevertheless, as most new apartment residents expanded their balconies, the government eventually changed the law in 2005 to allow balcony expansions.

After that, apartments including balcony expansions rapidly increased after 2006. With new floor plans introduced in places like Pangyo and Gwacheon, balcony expansion quickly became a necessity rather than an option.

(Provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

However, there are still spaces where expansion is prohibited. People often call balconies 'verandas,' but balconies and verandas are distinctly different spaces.

A veranda refers to an outdoor space attached to the front or side of a building, while a balcony is an additional space installed on the exterior wall of a building. Simply put, if the upper and lower units have the same area, that space is a balcony; if the upper unit is smaller than the lower unit, the resulting space is a veranda.

The reason balcony expansion is legal but veranda expansion remains illegal lies here. Expanding a veranda and incorporating it into one's own property means using the roof of the unit below. Since this involves using someone else's space without proper ownership, it can result in issues such as sunlight rights infringement, so it remains illegal.

There is a similar space called a terrace. It refers to a space located on the first floor that is separated from the outside. Recently, in the process of selling new apartments, terraces have been added to first-floor units, which were previously less preferred, resulting in the first-floor units having higher prices or higher competition rates.

A representative example is 'Le El Daechi' in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, supplied last November. This complex offered one terrace unit each in 55㎡, 59㎡, and 77㎡ sizes. Despite prices being up to nearly 150 million KRW higher than units of the same size, the competition rates were 332:1, 183:1, and 461:1 respectively, even higher than mid-floor units of the same size. This turned the disadvantage of lower floors into an advantage, creating high demand.