About 96% of public rental homes that broke ground this year are small units of less than 60 square meters, according to data obtained exclusively by The Seoul Economic Daily. Successive administrations — Moon Jae-in, Yoon Suk-yeol and now Lee Jae-myung — have pledged to expand mid-sized units as part of efforts to deliver higher-quality public rental housing, but actual supply remains concentrated in small units.
Data submitted by the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) to the office of Rep. Chung Il-young of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 6th showed that of 8,092 construction-type public rental homes that broke ground from January through September this year, only 344 units, or 4.3% of the total, measured between 60 and 84 square meters. Units smaller than 60 square meters accounted for 95.7%. The share of mid-sized public rental homes fell to 13.6% last year from 15.3% in 2024, then dropped sharply to a single digit of 4.3% through the third quarter of this year.
The figures diverge from the policies pursued by past governments to expand mid-sized public rental housing. Under the Moon Jae-in government, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it would supply about 6,000 mid-sized public rental homes in 2022, followed by 10,000 in 2023, 15,000 in 2024 and roughly 20,000 a year starting in 2025. Actual construction starts fell short of those targets. The Yoon Suk-yeol government also pushed policies to increase the floor area and improve the interior and exterior quality of public rental housing, but the efforts produced no clear results.
The Lee Jae-myung government has pledged to build 190,000 universal-type public rental homes by 2030 that middle-class households can live in long term, but doubts are growing over whether that is achievable. Project costs are rising as the government simultaneously expands supply and upgrades quality, while LH's financial capacity deteriorates. Under LH's medium- to long-term financial management plan for 2025 through 2029, its debt ratio is expected to climb to 260.3% in 2029 from 239% this year.
"If public rental housing cannot shed its image as old and cramped, there will be limits to how much people feel the benefit even if supply increases," Chung said. "We need to review LH's financial burden and the government support system together so that expanded supply and improvements in unit size, quality and location can continue."
