To Build Middle-Class Senior Housing, 'Hundreds of Thousands Won in Rent' Must Be Lowered First [Senior House]

Monthly Income of Middle-Income Elderly Around 2 Million Won
Currently, Monthly Rent 3 to 5 Million Won Makes High-Cost Elderly Welfare Housing Unaffordable

Tax Benefits and Deregulation Needed to Encourage Rent Reduction in Private Sector

Providing Closed Schools in Seoul as Sites for Elderly Welfare Housing Also Considered

Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

Income levels drop sharply when people become elderly. The reality is that they struggle with living expenses due to a lack of immediate work. Although they try to avoid asking their children for help and search everywhere for jobs?from community service centers and district offices to employment support centers?it is difficult to earn money as they did when they were younger. Hyun-Sang Jeong, a senior researcher at the Korea Labor Institute, stated, "Recently, the number of elderly employed has increased mainly in temporary day labor positions, concentrating in industries with low average monthly wages."

For this reason, even among the middle class, there is a significant income gap between elderly households and general households. According to Statistics Korea, the monthly income for the middle-income group (the third income quintile) among all households in South Korea was 4.22 million KRW (as of the fourth quarter of 2023). Elderly households earn much less than this. An analysis by NH Investment & Securities’ 100-Year Life Research Institute, based on last year’s Statistics Korea Household Finance and Welfare Survey, showed that the third quintile monthly income for households headed by elderly individuals aged 65 or older was only 1.97 million KRW.

The monthly rent for elderly welfare housing in South Korea ranges from 3 to 5 million KRW for a single occupant. Middle-class elderly have no place in this "their own league," where only a few elderly living in Gangnam reside. This is the background behind the underdevelopment and polarization of the elderly welfare housing market. To popularize elderly welfare housing so that even middle-class seniors, who manage to hold about 2 million KRW per month by combining earned income and pension income, can live there, monthly rent must first be lowered to match their income levels.

Experts advise that the government should reduce acquisition and registration taxes for operators of elderly welfare housing or support them by increasing floor area ratios to lower rents for the elderly. They also see the high land prices in the metropolitan area as a factor that raises monthly rents and hinders popularization, thus requiring government assistance. Their proposal includes considering the use of closed elementary, middle, and high school sites in Seoul?closed due to low birth rates?as land for elderly welfare housing.