Q1 수도권 Small Villa Monthly Rent Share 54.1% 'All-Time High'

The proportion of monthly rent in the small villa rental market in the Seoul metropolitan area reached an all-time high in the first quarter of this year.

A view of a villa neighborhood in downtown Seoul. / Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

On the 22nd, real estate information provider Economy Man Lab analyzed the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's actual transaction price disclosure system and found that the total number of jeonse and monthly rent transactions for villas (row houses and multi-family houses) with an exclusive area of 60㎡ or less in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon in the first quarter of this year was 50,891. Among these, monthly rent transactions accounted for 27,510, making up 54.1% of the total.

This is the highest figure for the first quarter since the Ministry of Land began compiling related statistics in 2011. The proportion of monthly rent for small villas in the metropolitan area has steadily increased every year from 31.5% in the first quarter of 2020 to 32.0% in 2021, 39.9% in 2022, and 49.0% in 2023.

Among the metropolitan areas, Gyeonggi Province had the highest proportion of monthly rent for small villas, with 7,916 monthly rent transactions (55.1%) out of 14,361 total jeonse and monthly rent transactions in the first quarter. In Seoul, out of a total of 33,043 transactions, there were 15,106 jeonse transactions and 17,937 monthly rent transactions, with monthly rent accounting for 54.3%. During the same period, Incheon had a monthly rent proportion of 47.5% (1,657 out of 3,487 transactions).

The decrease in jeonse transactions and increase in monthly rent transactions is largely attributed to villa jeonse fraud. Hwang Hansol, a research fellow at Economy Man Lab, said, "Due to concerns about not being able to get the jeonse deposit back, preference for monthly rent is increasing," adding, "until the perception that jeonse deposits can be safely returned is established, the preference for apartment jeonse is expected to become more pronounced."

Meanwhile, among the 25 autonomous districts in Seoul, Jung-gu had the highest proportion of monthly rent for small villas at 67.2%, followed by Seodaemun-gu (65.7%), Jongno-gu (64.5%), Songpa-gu (63.9%), Gwanak-gu (63.1%), Nowon-gu (60.4%), Dongdaemun-gu (58.9%), Dongjak-gu (58.0%), Gangnam-gu (57.8%), and Yeongdeungpo-gu (56.0%).