Average Monthly Apartment Maintenance Fee Around 200,000 KRW Most Common... 7 out of 10 Say "Expensive"

Among apartment residents, 4 out of 10 pay an average monthly maintenance fee in the 200,000 KRW range, with over 70% responding that the maintenance fees are expensive.

An apartment mailbox in Seoul has a maintenance fee bill delivered. / Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

On the 13th, real estate platform Zigbang conducted a survey of 816 application users (October 18 to November 1, confidence level 95% ±3.43 percentage points), revealing that 43.3% of apartment residents reported paying maintenance fees between 200,000 and 300,000 KRW per month.

For officetel residents, the most common response was paying between 100,000 and 200,000 KRW, accounting for 52.7%. In the case of row houses (villa), multi-family, and detached/multi-household residences, the proportion paying less than 100,000 KRW was high at 62.7% and 60.5%, respectively.

The average monthly maintenance fee by number of rooms was highest for ▲studio residents paying less than 100,000 KRW (46.2%) ▲two-room residents paying between 100,000 and 200,000 KRW (45.1%) ▲three-room or more residents paying between 200,000 and 300,000 KRW (43.0%).

Regarding the level of maintenance fees paid, 74.9% of respondents said the fees were "expensive." This was followed by 23.4% who said "appropriate" and 1.7% who said "cheap." Among officetel residents, 88.4% responded that maintenance fees were expensive, a higher rate than other groups.

By housing type, monthly rent tenants (81.7%) felt maintenance fees were more expensive compared to owner-occupiers (71.1%) or jeonse tenants (73.4%). Additionally, studio residents (83.0%) felt a greater burden from maintenance fees than two-room residents (74.6%) or three-room or more residents (72.3%).

Regarding improvements to maintenance fees, 42.2% responded that "transparent information disclosure is needed to check and compare maintenance fees." This was followed by ▲clear criteria for fee calculation (31.3%) ▲installation of individual household meters for accurate measurement (11.2%) ▲detailed itemization instead of flat-rate fees (7.6%) ▲resolution of the issue of passing maintenance fees onto rent (6.1%).

When asked whether maintenance fees are important when choosing a place to live, 61.9% of all respondents said "important." Especially, respondents living in row houses (villa) and multi-family housing (80.0%) considered it relatively more important, followed by detached/multi-household residents (74.4%) and officetel residents (70.5%), who also regarded maintenance fees as important compared to apartment residents.

Ham Young-jin, head of Zigbang Big Data Lab, said, "Given the issue of jeonse fraud and the significant burden maintenance fees place on vulnerable housing groups, it is necessary to calculate maintenance fees transparently and accurately and disclose the information."