ONE-PERSON HOUSEHOLDS IN SEOUL AREA

[Anchor Lead]

Single-person households have become the most common residence type these days. About three out of ten households are occupied by one person. Most of them live in the capital region due to work or school.

[Pkg]

Earlier this year, Kim Chae-rin, an office worker in her 20s, moved out of her parents’ house and into a place of her own near her office. The money she spends on food has nearly doubled. But housing cost is the highest expense.

[Soundbite] Kim Chae-rin(Office Worker) : "Any place within 10-minute walking distance to a subway station is expensive no matter how old and shabby it is. I can’t even turn on the heating or cooling because of the high utilities cost."

Despite the high housing expenditure, the number of one-person households kept growing, now taking up one out of three households. School or job is mainly why people live alone. Nearly half of the single-person households live in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi-do areas where a large number of workplaces and schools are located. The problem is the high housing expenditure as well as high housing prices in these areas. For one-person households, around 20% of their expenditure is housing-related. That's almost double the average of all households. Given that the average income of one-person households is just one-third that of others, people living alone naturally have a harder time making ends meet.

[Soundbite] Prof. Sung Tae-yoon(Dept. of Economics, Yonsei Univ.) : "Many one-person households haven’t accumulated enough assets and don’t have steady income. So there's increasing risks and pressure."

When they were asked which policy they need the most, about half the respondents answered housing stability measures. Among related policies, ones related to loans for rent deposits were highlighted as the most urgent support they need.