[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City is helping to stabilize housing life by supporting interest on housing lease deposit, which has been a heavy burden for young independent households without homes, and increasing job-seeking competitiveness by supporting various certification exam fees. In addition, the city is promoting a youth community revitalization project to prevent youth isolation and foster them as active participants in the local community.
The city announced on the 2nd that starting in the second half of the year, it plans to begin supporting interest on housing lease deposits for young independent households aged 18 to 39 living in Incheon who do not own homes.
The support target is housing with a lease deposit of 200 million KRW or less (including residential officetels), with a loan limit of up to 100 million KRW and an interest support of 2% per year. Unmarried applicants must have an annual income of 40 million KRW or less, and married applicants must have a combined annual income of 70 million KRW or less to apply.
The city will select banks and establish detailed plans in the first half of the year, then recruit applicants from the second half. This year, 200 million KRW will be invested to support 150 people.
An Incheon city official stated, "According to the 2020 Housing Survey conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the burden of rent and loan repayment for youth is 22.6%, which is higher than the general population (19.6%). Since the rent-to-monthly income ratio is high, it becomes an obstacle to the economic advancement of young people who are just starting their careers, so we plan to support interest on housing lease deposits."
The city will also provide a one-time reimbursement of up to 100,000 KRW for actual expenses of language tests or national technical certification exam fees for young people aged 18 to 39 residing in Incheon.
The exam fee support is provided regardless of pass or fail, and applies to exams taken from January 1 of this year. The application period is from March 2 to November 30, and applications can be submitted through the Incheon city website.
The number of welfare point recipients for employed youth will increase from 1,000 to 1,500 this year, and the 'Dream Narae' project, which supports interview outfit rentals for young job seekers, will expand from 3 times per person to up to 5 times.
The 'Incheon Youth Space' for youth rest and advancement will also expand from 4 locations (Incheon City, Bupyeong, Dong-gu, Seo-gu) to 8 locations (Jung-gu, Yeonsu-gu, Gyeyang-gu, Ganghwa-gun).
The youth community revitalization project, which has been promoted as a local government subsidy project by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety since 2017, will be fully launched by Incheon City this year. By supporting task execution expenses for youth communities linked to the region, the project aims to establish a foundation for local activities and encourage youth settlement in the area.
The support target is youth communities (organizations or corporations) consisting of five or more members based in Incheon, and applications can be submitted through the Incheon city website and Incheon Youth Portal from the 16th of this month to April 4. However, at least 70% of the members of the youth community must be youth.
After screening next month, the city plans to select a total of 10 teams and provide 8 million KRW per team. Teams applying from population decline areas designated and announced by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (Ganghwa-gun, Ongjin-gun) will receive additional points.
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