This year, the proportion of monthly rent contracts in dwelling lease agreements has expanded to about 61%, with a larger increase than jeonse.

The price of apartments for sale and lease is posted at a real estate agency in Seoul. /Courtesy of News1

According to statistics from the court's registration information center on the 24th, there were a total of 743,733 monthly rent contracts for dwellings nationwide from January to May (as of the 16th), an increase of 23.9% compared to 600,331 contracts during the same period last year. During the same period, jeonse contracts increased from 438,935 to 471,653, a rise of 7.4%, which was less than the increase in monthly rent contracts.

So far this year, the proportion of monthly rent in all lease agreements has risen to 61.2%, up 3.4 percentage points from 57.8% during the same period last year.

As recent jeonse fraud cases have occurred one after another, tenants are increasingly preferring monthly rent due to a lower burden of losing their deposit. For landlords, the preference for monthly rent has increased as interest rates have declined.

In the Seoul apartment market, there is a trend of increasing high-value monthly rent transactions. According to statistics from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, there were 18,035 transactions for monthly rents over 1 million won for apartments in Seoul from January to May, a 2.6% increase compared to 17,570 transactions during the same period last year.

In the northern part of Seoul, recent monthly rent contracts have reached as high as 4 million won. An 84㎡ unit in the 'e-Pyeonhansesang Sinchon Complex 4' in Bukahyun-dong, Seodaemun-gu, was contracted last month for a deposit of 50 million won and a monthly rent of 4 million won. A unit of the same size at 'Cheongnyangni Station Hanyang Sujain Graciel' in Yongdu-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, was also contracted under the same conditions in March.