Rep. Jung Hee-yong. [Provided by Rep. Jung Hee-yong's office]
Rep. Jung Hee-yong. [Provided by Rep. Jung Hee-yong's office]

More than 43,000 rental housing units supplied by the Korea Land and Housing Corporation have sat vacant for six months or longer, according to data released Monday.

Rep. Jung Hee-yong of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Land and Transportation Committee, said data obtained from the corporation showed that as of last month, 35,717 publicly constructed rental units and, as of August, 7,609 purchased rental units — a combined 43,326 units — had been empty for at least six months. The overall vacancy rate stood at around 3.7 percent across both categories.

The sharpest concern is the widening regional disparity. Seoul's combined vacancy rate for constructed and purchased rental units was just 0.8 percent, while the combined rate for Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province reached about 5.6 percent — roughly seven times higher.

By city and province, Daegu posted a 6.1 percent vacancy rate for constructed rentals and 5.1 percent for purchased rentals, while North Gyeongsang Province recorded 5.5 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.

The gap was also stark between the Greater Seoul metropolitan area — Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province — where the vacancy rate was 2.6 percent, and non-metropolitan regions, where it reached 4.7 percent, or 1.8 times higher.

South Chungcheong Province and Sejong were particularly severe cases, with vacancy rates climbing into double digits — South Chungcheong at 10.6 percent for constructed rentals and 19.5 percent for purchased rentals, and Sejong at 10.2 percent and 16.5 percent, respectively — pointing to a serious imbalance in move-in demand.

The corporation has been relaxing income and asset eligibility requirements to attract additional tenants and reduce vacancies, but the measures have had limited effect.

The number of complexes recruiting under loosened eligibility criteria grew from 204 in 2022 to 282 in 2025, yet actual contracts signed over the same period fell from 14,571 units to 6,719 — a drop of more than half.

"In the metropolitan area, people are desperately searching for a place to live, while in the regions, newly built homes are sitting empty," Jung said. "The vacancy problem in the provinces could go beyond a financial burden on the corporation and lead to the hollowing out of local communities."

He added that complexes with insufficient move-in demand should have their income and asset requirement waivers brought forward sooner, and that the scope of relaxation — including the removal of income and total asset thresholds — should be expanded more boldly. Jung also called for preemptive measures to convert recruitment categories with low demand, such as those targeting elderly residents or families with multiple children, into general-category units.


kbj7653@heraldcorp.com