“I have no way of knowing whether an ex-convict or a person with bad credit is coming into my house.”
As the shortage of rental properties intensifies in the apartment rental market, a petition requesting the creation of a law allowing tenants to be interviewed in advance has appeared in the National Assembly Petition for Public Consent, sparking controversy. This petition is unlikely to become actual law as it is likely to lead to discrimination against the underprivileged, but it is evaluated as a reflection of the unstable market.
According to Edaily on the 12th, a ‘petition regarding the proposal to introduce a tenant interview system to prevent malicious tenants’ was reported to have recently appeared in the National Assembly’s National Consent Petition.
The petition received the prior consent of 100 people just two days after it was posted and is now in the process of being reviewed for full-scale requirements. If the requirements review is passed, the National Assembly Public Consent Petition website will be released, and if more than 50,000 consents are received after release, a full-scale review will be conducted by the standing committee.
The petitioner argued, “With a blind rental contract system, there is no way to know whether someone with a criminal record or bad credit is coming into my house,” and added, “In order to prevent mutual disputes and protect landlord property rights, it is necessary to introduce a tenant interview system where tenants can trust each other and enter into a contract.”
In particular, the petition specifically requests, through the first document screening, a credit information inquiry to find out whether there is a loan delinquency, a criminal record report to identify violent crimes, a proof of income amount, a certificate of full tax payment, and a family relationship certificate to confirm that the person matches the resident family.
Recently, in the rental market, the shortage of apartment rentals has become more severe, especially in Seoul and the metropolitan area, after the government announced a series of real estate measures such as expansion of the land transaction permit zone (Toheo zone) and housing loan regulations.
According to real estate platform Asil, as of the 23rd of last month, there were 24,759 apartments for rent in Seoul. There was a sharp decline of about 21.1% compared to 31,397 leased properties on October 23 last year.
Seoul apartment rental prices have also been on the rise for two consecutive years. According to the ‘Status of average apartment rent based on actual transaction price from 2022 to 2025’ submitted by Rep. Lee Yeon-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the average rent for apartments in Seoul fell from 537.1 million won in 2022 to 535.8 million won in 2023, and then rose for two consecutive years to 574.8 million won last year and 590.4 million won this year.
Reporter Lim Jeong-hwan
