The High Rise

Most people in Korea either live in an apartment or on a farm. Renting or Leasing an apartment doesnt work like it does in the United States. Sure they have the typical lease agreement for foreigners but for the average Korean its a little different. To rent an apartment they require an enormous deposit, somewhere in the range of $200,000 USD. After this, the tenant just pays a small monthly rental fee while the owner of the apartment collects interest on the down payment or uses the money to invest in another building. Most of the apartments around me are atleast 30 stories tall and are grouped in little villages. Most of them are complete with their own post office and quicky marts. Koreans also measure apartment size in a different unit then we are used to. I first thought they measured them in square meters but they measure them in pyong. My apartment is 18 pyong so in western measurements its 640 sqft. I have a larger on in comparison to some of my less fortunate friends. One guy I know in Seoul has a 5 pyong apartment. Its cramped to say the lease.