South Korean housing prices soar

This man and his fiancee are shopping for an apartment, and they’ve already looked at many, many places today. the husband to be says so far they’re not having much luck and haven’t be able to find many places in their price range that meet their conditions. Koreans don’t rent month-to-month like Americans, they pay a large deposit up front and when they move out they get the money back. the owner will use that money to buy other properties or make money off the interest. The couple has about $75,000 dollars set aside, some of which is borrowed from the bank, but this agent says that price isn’t enough for many areas, and many one-room apartments can cost as much as $100,000. some analysts believe the situation in Seoul looks like the situation in the US just before the sub-prime mortgage crisis caused the market to collapse. This researcher says the housing bubble here began the same way as the American bubble did, and he says a crash could occur. Many South Koreans are looking to their new president to resolve the housing shortage and his administration promised to build 3 million more homes and many new apartments and residential areas over the next five years. but the shortage of affordable housing won’t be resolved soon.