Think Before You Buy

Thanks to Robert for suggesting the following considerations when renting/buying a room in Korea.

1. With the realtor, check the debts of the building owner. Higher debt increases the risk of not getting your deposit back when you move out.

2. With the realtor, check the registered plans for the rooms and the building. Sometimes rooms are subdivided during construction to increase the number of rentable rooms beyond what is registered. The extra, non-registered, rooms are illegal and hence your deposit on them may not be insured. Therefore, renting such rooms might result in the renter (that's you) ultimately kissing his deposit good-bye.

Perhaps you thought of taking your building owner to court for your deposit; that could take a really long time and is a big hassle!

Cheers.