We moved! ^^ (Renting a place in Korea)

We've been really busy lately trying to find a bigger place for us, so I didn't have much time to update my blog. We've been living together for a while now and our place was really nice but also really small. It is what the Koreans call a one-room. That means that except for the bathroom and a tiny balcony with the washing machine, we only had one room that was living room, bedroom and kitchen all in one. Well luckily the kitchen was kind of separated a bit from the rest of the room, but still. We made it as nice and cozy as possible, but it's really meant for just one person. And now we decided it was time to move to a bit bigger place.

Similar to one-rooms, there are also two-rooms, three-rooms and four-rooms available to rent. We plan to stay in our new place for a while so we decided to look for a three-room. All the house renting in Korea is done through the real estate agencies that are called budongsan. You can search for places on the internet or through various mobile apps. And when you find the one you like you contact the budongsan and they show you the place.

We've seen several different three-rooms and apartments and while some actually look better than on the photos, some look A LOT worse. We really wanted a clean, rather new place. Sometimes the real estates agents can show you some other rooms they think you might like if you don't like the first one. The good ones are gone within a day, so you have to be lucky too. It's really been stressful running around, looking for something that we'd like... you see something so nice online and then when you see it in person it's all so dirty and old... and you feel so disappointed. But we got lucky. Last week a new three-room add just appeared online and we called in the morning already. We sat up an appointment with the budongsan and went to check it out. This one actually looked better than on the photos and it was quite big compared to most three-rooms. It was perfect for us. It had a big kitchen, which was the most important thing for me, and two bathrooms, one of them quite spacious, which was the most important for my boyfriend. :) So we decided to take it.

There are several ways to pay for the room. You can buy it, but seriously, who can afford to buy an apartment these days? Then you have joensae. This means you pay a large amount of money (probably less than a third of what the place is worth) and then you get that amount back once your contract is done. This is really good if you can afford it. Altogether you pay less than the monthly payments would cost and you get it back in the end. However, this can also be dangerous, because in case that for some reason the owner of the place doesn't give you the money back, the insurance company won't cover all the costs but only a certain amount. I don't really have much experience with it, but this is what my boyfriend told me. And then, there is wolsae, which is a monthly rent. Together with the monthly rents, there is always a key deposit which can also be quite expensive. Usually if you pay more for the key deposit the monthly rent is cheaper, and if the key deposit is cheap, then monthly payments are higher.

For example, an average one-room in Jeonju (prices here are a lot cheaper than in Seoul for example) would costs between 200.000won to 300.000won monthly with a key deposit between one and three million won. There are a lot more expensive one-rooms too, depending on how new/clean it is, the location etc. Jeonsae would be somewhere around 20 million. Some one-rooms are completely empty, others come with air-conditioning, laundry machine, closets etc. So the price also depends on that. Oh, and let's not forget, you have to pay the real-estate agent some money too. The more expensive the place, the more you have to pay.

Some of the one-rooms currently available in Joenju

You might wonder what the difference is between a four-room and an apartment, at least I did. And the truth is, I am not a hundred percent sure, but as far as I know, apartments are usually in large apartment buildings with 10 floors or more. Three and four-rooms on the other hand are located in so called villas that are much smaller and usually don't have more than 4 floors.

So we found our new three-room home in a new villa and we moved in more than a week ago. Our friends were really nice to come and help us move our stuff. I've been packing everything in boxes for about two days and I couldn't believe how much stuff we actually had in that small one-room. :) We called a truck to help us transport our bed, closets and book cases and it cost only 50.000won, since our new place is not far from our old one.

We managed to do everything in just one day. We moved all our stuff to a new place and of course we were dead tired and starving at the end, so we ordered some jajangmyeon for us and our friends who helped us. I've written about jajangmyeon before, so if you don't remember you can check my post on Chinese food in Korea. Koreans almost always order jajangmyeon after they finish moving to a new place. I don't know why, I asked my boyfriend and he also doesn't know. I even googled it in Korean and apparently a lot of Koreans don't know the real reason :) But probably it's because the food usually arrives fast and because after you're done eating, someone from the Chinese place comes back to your home and takes all the dishes and leftovers away, so you don't need to do anything. :) Jajangmyeon is usually quite cheap too.

So after finishing our jajangmyeon, the friends stayed over for a bit to watch our new smart TV :) And I took a short nap, 'cause I was exhausted. Then after the friends left, we went back to the old place and cleaned everything. You're supposed to clean it when you leave, especially if you want to get your key deposit money back. So we did. We could have done it the next day, but we wanted to finish it all on Saturday, so we'd have Sunday to rest.

It wasn't easy and I had no idea moving could be so stressful. But I am so so so happy with our new place. We're slowly buying all the furniture that we need and it looks nicer every day. ^^ I might post some photos later when we're done decorating. ^^