On the morning of January 10, 2015, black smoke billowed from the center of Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province. A fire that started on the first floor of an urban residential building spread to the upper floors and then to an adjacent building. Residents were forced to flee to the roof, where they were rescued by firefighting helicopters. Among the 170 residents in the affected area, nearly 130 were killed or injured.
The fire was caused by a short circuit from a motorcycle parked on the first floor. However, the building's structure exacerbated the damage. Due to its location in a commercial area, sunlight access regulations were not applied, and the narrow gaps between buildings served as pathways for the flames to spread. There were also no sprinklers. In October of that year, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport tightened regulations on the spacing and exterior finishing standards for buildings in commercial areas. The government had only tightened these regulations after the tragedy, which had previously been relaxed to allow for faster construction.
In December of the same year, the Ministry imposed additional restrictions on goshiwon, or small residential facilities for single occupants. It prohibited the installation of bathtubs and cooking facilities in individual rooms and banned the division of goshiwon into smaller units for sale. The rationale was clear: to prevent goshiwon from being used as de facto independent living spaces. If goshiwon were allowed to transform into one-room apartments, they could bypass minimum housing standards regarding light, ventilation, and space.
Eleven years have passed, and those two regulations are once again under scrutiny.
Same Ministry, Opposite Solutions
On May 26, the Ministry announced a plan to supply 110,000 non-apartment housing units. It will lift restrictions on the number of units and floors in urban residential buildings, lower parking requirements, and ease sunlight access regulations. Days later, reports emerged that the government plans to abolish the ban on bathtubs in goshiwon. This was a key element of the multi-use facility construction standards introduced 11 years ago. It is also said that the mandatory learning facility requirement will be revised. The legal definition of goshiwon is "a facility that provides accommodation and has facilities for learners to study within a designated space." If the learning requirements are weakened, goshiwon will drift further from its legal status as a "study accommodation" and become closer to one-room living spaces, which is precisely the transformation that was intended to be prevented 11 years ago.
The two issues are labeled differently. One focuses on expanding supply, while the other aims to alleviate the rental crisis for single-person households. However, the underlying concept is the same. Whenever there is a shortage of normal housing, the government's response tends to lean toward non-residential solutions. When apartment supply is restricted, the focus shifts to non-apartment options; when rental prices rise, the emphasis shifts to non-residential facilities. The government's solutions for single-person households consistently emerge from options that fall outside the realm of standard housing, leading to smaller, weaker, and lower-standard living conditions.
Reversing Its Own Minimum Standards
The government's justification centers on "alleviating the rental crisis." However, will lifting the bathtub ban truly lower rents? Before that, it is essential to revisit why the government prohibited bathtubs 11 years ago.
The facilities banned at that time were not limited to bathtubs. Cooking facilities and balconies for individual rooms were also included in the ban. The commonality among these three is clear: they all contribute to making a room a "self-sufficient living unit." Hygiene, food preparation, and exposure to fresh air. When all three are present in a room, it becomes a self-sufficient living space. However, goshiwon are classified as non-residential. Housing standards regarding light, ventilation, space, and noise do not apply. The moment a bathtub is allowed, transforming a room into a self-sufficient living unit, the occupant is legally living in a non-residential space while practically residing in a housing situation. They bear all the burdens of living while maintaining their non-residential status. Goshiwon rooms are typically 2 to 3 pyeong (approximately 70 to 105 square feet), with some as small as 1 pyeong (about 35 square feet). Adding a bathtub to such a small space raises questions about the feasibility of living there.
Minimum Housing Standards: Their Purpose
The entity responsible for defining minimum housing standards is the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The Housing Act mandates that the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport establish the minimum housing standards necessary for the public's comfortable living. The Ministry has set the minimum area for single-person households at 14 square meters (approximately 150 square feet), which must include a bedroom, kitchen, flush toilet, and bathing facilities. This standard is often criticized as being too small, especially when compared to Japan (25 square meters) and the UK (38 square meters). Earlier this year, the Ministry itself indicated plans to raise this standard.
The issue lies in the fact that the same ministry is simultaneously pursuing contradictory paths. While it claims to be expanding the minimum housing standards, it is also loosening restrictions on non-residential living spaces that fall below those standards. The ministry, which deems 14 square meters too small, is moving toward further blurring the identity of rooms that are even smaller, often just one or two pyeong. The Ministry's desired solution cannot be the expansion of one-pyeong rooms.
So, what will happen to rents? Allowing bathtubs is more likely to serve as a justification for upgrading facilities rather than lowering rents. If goshiwon with bathtubs are introduced, facility costs will rise, leading to increased rental prices. The market may shift toward more expensive "premium goshiwon" priced around 500,000 won, reducing the availability of low-cost goshiwon that were previously the last option for single-person households. This could lead to a polarization where the cheapest housing options become more expensive.
Statistics indicate a trend contrary to the government's claims. According to last year's housing survey, the proportion of households falling below minimum housing standards increased to 3.8%, up from the previous year. Among young households, the figure rose sharply to 8.2%. The percentage of young people living in non-residential accommodations like goshiwon reached 17.9%. More people are living in conditions that do not meet the minimum housing standards set by the Ministry. Yet, the Ministry's response is to further legitimize living spaces that fall outside those standards. Breaking its own minimum standards in response to a rental crisis is not a solution to the problem.
Why Were Those Regulations Established 11 Years Ago?
The reason for revisiting the Uijeongbu fire is not to use the tragedy as a political critique but to remember the costs associated with the relaxed regulations intended for rapid supply.
The same applies to goshiwon. In 2008, fires in goshiwon in Gangnam and Yongin resulted in the deaths of six and seven people, respectively. In 2016, another fire claimed seven lives, and in 2018, a fire at the Gukil goshiwon in Jongno resulted in seven fatalities. It was only after the Gukil goshiwon fire, which injured 11 others, that the government tightened regulations once again. In 2020, the government amended the enforcement decree of the Building Act to mandate the installation of fire sprinklers and strengthen standards for aging goshiwon. As a result, the number of goshiwon fires was halved the following year, providing evidence that stricter regulations positively impacted safety.
The current review of lifting the bathtub ban does not pertain to safety. It is essential to clarify this point for fairness. The easing of sunlight access regulations in the Uijeongbu case does not involve safety standards like sprinklers or finishing materials. The government can argue that it is not compromising safety.
However, both issues lead to the same destination. One concerns the "minimum safety standards," while the other pertains to the "minimum housing rights standards." Both are lines clearly drawn by the Ministry for valid reasons. People died in Uijeongbu, and people died in Jongno. Why were those lines established? To prevent narrow gaps from becoming pathways for flames and to stop non-residential spaces from transforming into housing that forces people into lower-standard living conditions, ensuring that the costs of rapid supply do not return as tragedies.
Has the Reason for Those Regulations Disappeared?
So, has the reason for establishing those regulations 11 years ago disappeared? Data from government-affiliated institutions clearly illustrates this point. An analysis comparing 2008 and 2018 by the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements shows that the proportion of households in the bottom 20% of housing area living in non-residential accommodations like goshiwon increased from 0.7% to 9.4%, a 13-fold increase over ten years. This indicates that the very scenario the regulations aimed to prevent—non-residential spaces effectively becoming residential—has grown larger in that time.
The number of single-person households has also significantly increased. In 2015, single-person households made up about 27% of the population, but by 2023, this number had risen to 7.829 million households, accounting for 35.5% of the total. The group the regulations aimed to protect has not diminished; rather, it has grown substantially. The trend of people being pushed out of housing has not decreased either. In 2024, the proportion of general households living in non-residential accommodations like officetels, goshiwon, and goshi-tels is expected to rise to 6.0%, an increase from the previous year. The concerns from 11 years ago have not lessened; more people are being pushed toward lower-standard living conditions than ever before.
So, Where Will the Solution Be Found?
The starting point for solutions is already present in the government's announcement materials. In the May 26 plan, the Ministry emphasized financial measures rather than regulatory relaxation. It introduced new special PF guarantees and sales guarantees for non-apartment housing and raised the loan limit for business operators from 70 million won to around 100 million won. It also established new fund loans and mortgage guarantees for businesses remodeling non-residential spaces into standard housing. The government itself identified the causes of the sluggish non-apartment market as PF issues, construction costs, and declining sales potential, directing its solutions toward these areas.
Taking one step further, instead of loosening sunlight access regulations and creating narrow gaps again, the government could focus on solidifying PF and sales guarantees to ensure that projects can actually move forward. Instead of lifting the bathtub ban and allowing non-residential spaces to masquerade as one-room accommodations, the government could enhance support for remodeling non-residential spaces into standard housing. Both paths are extensions of the direction already outlined in the government's announcement materials.
Ultimately, this could lead to creating solutions for single-person households within the realm of standard housing. Programs like the Youth Purchase Rental, Youth Jeonse Rental, Happy Housing, and Youth Safe Housing offered by LH and SH all meet standard housing criteria and are supplied below market rates. The issue is not the lack of channels but the insufficient volume of available options. A key factor exacerbating the rental crisis is not the lack of affordable housing but the displacement of tenants from jeonse (long-term lease) arrangements who have nowhere to go. Loosening restrictions on non-residential spaces does not provide a solution to either issue.
The government's announcement materials also contain pathways closer to solutions. The problem lies in the fact that, on the other hand, it is simultaneously moving in the opposite direction regarding its own established minimum standards. As long as the ministry, which deems 14 square meters too small, continues to pursue a path that legalizes living spaces that fall below even half that size, no solutions for single-person household housing will emerge. The Ministry must confront the lines it has drawn: the standards tightened after the Uijeongbu fire, those tightened after the Jongno goshiwon fire, and the 14 square meter standard it established in the Housing Act. It must remember the reasons for the regulations established 11 years ago.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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