SEOUL - The Seoul metropolitan government announced on April 28 that from 2025 it will provide housing subsidies to couples who do not own homes and who have newborns, to mitigate the trend of couples forgoing parenthood due to the South Korean capital’s high housing costs and to enable more married couples with newborns to continue living in the city.
The city government revealed its plan to provide financial support of 300,000 won (S$302) per newborn per month for a maximum of two years. This means that married couples can receive a maximum subsidy of up to 7.2 million won per newborn.
Multicultural families are also eligible for the subsidy as long as one of the parents and their child are of Korean nationality.
Although there is no set income standard for couples who wish to apply for the subsidy, they must live in Seoul and have a monthly rent of 2.68 million won or less.
For couples renting a home via jeonse, a South Korean system where tenants pay a large lump sum deposit to the landlord in lieu of a monthly rent, they must have paid 700 million won or less for the deposit.
Couples living in public rental homes from Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation and Korea Land and Housing Corporation are not eligible for the subsidy.
Once selected, the couple must not own a home while receiving the subsidy. If they move outside of Seoul or buy a home during that period, the city government will no longer provide the subsidy.
The housing cost support programme is set to be implemented from Jan 1, 2025, after consultations with the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The Seoul metropolitan government anticipates that it will be able to subsidise about 10,000 households each year under the programme.
“Couples who have children and do not own homes have been in dire need of support, but have been in a blind spot and left out of policy targets,” said Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon of the new subsidy programme on April 28.
“The city government hopes this new programme will be of practical help to couples who were hesitant to have children due to housing costs as they will be able to receive housing support once they bear children from next year. The city of Seoul will continue to do its utmost to overcome the low birth rate.”
Data from Seoul’s city government shows that in 2023, 325,317 individuals moved from Seoul to neighbouring regions such as Gyeonggi province and Incheon, with 61.3 per cent – or 199,527 people – citing “family and housing” as their main driver.
Seoul’s total fertility rate hit a record low of 0.55 in 2023, the lowest among all cities and provinces in Korea, according to Statistics Korea. The number of newborns in Seoul was 394,000 in 2023, marking a 7.6 per cent fall, or 32,000 babies, compared with the previous year.
THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
