Once you open a Korean housing subscription account, the next question is usually the same one: how much should I put in? But something has to be settled first — whether the flat you are aiming at is a national housing unit or a private one.
The two are ranked by different articles of the rules, in different ways. Private housing looks at a deposit threshold. National housing looks at how many times you paid and how much has accumulated. Hold the deposit table against a national housing unit and it answers nothing, and the reverse is just as true.
And that deposit table carries one footnote that a great many articles read backwards.
1. The deposit threshold goes by where you live, not where you are buying. The note under table 2 says “region means the applicant's residential area on the resident registration record as of the announcement date”.
2. “One year gets you first rank” is not always true. The article itself lets a provincial governor extend the requirement to 24 months, and in a regulated zone it starts at two years.
3. You may pay up to 500,000 won a month, but only 250,000 is counted. Article 9(3) sets the monthly payment at 20,000 to 500,000 won, while article 10(5)1 says any month above 250,000 won counts as 250,000 when the accumulated total is worked out.
Two tables that travel around as one
The Rules on Housing Supply split general supply ranking across two separate articles.
| National housing (art. 27) | Private housing (art. 28) | |
|---|---|---|
| What sets the rank | Account age + number of payments | Account age + deposit threshold |
| What breaks a tie inside rank 1 | Accumulated total or payment count | Points or a draw |
| The table 2 deposit figures | Not a ranking requirement | The requirement itself |
| Rules on Housing Supply (in force 15 June 2026), articles 27 and 28. The same phrase “rank 1” means different things in the two articles. | ||
So “you need three million won in the account” is a private housing statement, and “what matters is paying in every month without fail” is a national housing statement. Both are correct about different things.
The deposit goes by where you live
The private housing deposit thresholds sit in table 2 (amended 10 May 2023, tied to article 10(1)).
| Exclusive floor area you may apply for | Seoul and Busan | Other metropolitan cities | Everywhere else |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 m² or less | 3.0m won | 2.5m won | 2.0m won |
| 102 m² or less | 6.0m won | 4.0m won | 3.0m won |
| 135 m² or less | 10m won | 7.0m won | 4.0m won |
| Any area | 15m won | 10m won | 5.0m won |
| Note: “region” means the applicant's residential area on the resident registration record as of the announcement date. | |||
That one note fixes the direction the table is read in. Applying for a flat in Seoul does not put you on the Seoul row — your resident registration does. Live outside a metropolitan city and aim at 85 m² or less, and the threshold is two million won.
One more thing: the rows are thresholds, not a ladder you climb. If 85 m² or less is all you want, three million won covers it in Seoul; if you want the right to apply for any size, it is 15 million — five times as much (our own comparison).
“One year” is only the default
Article 27(1) sets out first rank for national housing like this.
| Region | Account age | Payments | Extra conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seoul metropolitan area | 1 year | 12 or more | Governor may extend to 24 months / 24 payments |
| Outside that area | 6 months | 6 or more | Governor may extend to 12 months / 12 payments |
| Speculation-overheated or subscription-overheated zone | 2 years | 24 or more | Must be the household head; no member of the homeless household may have won another unit in the past 5 years |
| Contracted zone | 1 month | — | — |
| Article 27(1)1, items a to d. The contracted zone rarely comes up in guides, but the article gives it its own line at one month. | |||
Private housing (article 28(1)) has the same skeleton. One year plus the deposit threshold in the capital region, six months plus the deposit elsewhere, with the same extension clause. In a regulated zone it is two years plus the deposit, and on top of that you must be the household head, must not belong to a household where someone won another unit in the past five years, and must not be in a household owning two or more homes.
So “one year” is a capital-region default, nothing more. The announcement may ask for 24 months, or the zone may start you at two. The announcement decides the account age, not the account. The wider buying sequence continues in the apartment purchase process.
For national housing the ruler changes at 40 m²
When first rank is oversubscribed, article 27(2) sets the order.
- Above 40 m² — ➊ homeless household member for 3 years or more with the largest accumulated total ➋ largest accumulated total
- 40 m² or below — ➊ homeless household member for 3 years or more with the most payments ➋ most payments
That has a practical edge. Aiming at 40 m² or below, there is no reason to raise the amount — 20,000 won and 500,000 won both register as one payment. Above 40 m², the amount is the ranking. And in both cases three years without a home takes the front seats first.
Half of a 500,000 won payment does not count
Article 9(3) sets the monthly payment between 20,000 and 500,000 won. Article 10(5)1 then says “where the monthly payment exceeds 250,000 won, it shall be calculated as 250,000 won” — for the accumulated total that decides national housing order.
| Monthly payment | Actually paid over 10 years | Recognised as accumulated total |
|---|---|---|
| 250,000 won | 30m won | 30m won |
| 500,000 won | 60m won | 30m won |
| Worked out over 120 months — our own calculation. The two end up in the same place in the ordering, and the 30m won difference buys no rank. | ||
Before pushing spare cash into the account, it is worth weighing it against other places with the savings maturity calculator. If you are only ever going to look at private housing, of course, this does not apply — there, what matters is simply whether the deposit threshold is met.
Prepayment and minor-age payments have their own ceilings
Trying to fill the account in one go runs into several more lines.
| What | Ceiling | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly payment | 20,000 to 500,000 won | art. 9(3) |
| Total prepayment | Up to the highest table 2 threshold | art. 10(1) |
| Prepayments recognised | 24 months' worth | art. 10(2) |
| Monthly payment for the accumulated total | 250,000 won | art. 10(5)1 |
| Payments made while a minor | 60 | art. 10(4)2 |
| For the minor-age line, payments made on or before 31 December 2023 count up to 24 within that 60. The account age used in the points system is capped at five years (art. 10(6)). | ||
Note where the prepayment ceiling is anchored — the highest figure in table 2. The deposit table looks like a private housing device, but it reaches national housing savers too at the point where prepayment is capped.
A few things worth asking back
Can I live in a province and apply in Seoul?
Residency requirements belong to each individual announcement and are outside this article. What is settled is that the deposit threshold follows your own resident registration area under the note to table 2. The two are separate questions.
Is holding the account long enough on its own?
For private housing the requirements are account age and deposit, so monthly payments are not required as such once the threshold is met. National housing is different — the article asks for 12 or more payments for first rank in the capital region.
What happens if I pay late?
Article 10(3) treats a late payment as made on a date produced by a formula. It is not lost; the date it counts from moves back. The formula itself is set out as a table in the article and is not reproduced here.
What about the points system?
The point items — years without a home, dependants, account age — sit in table 1 and were not checked for this article. This piece covers getting into a rank, nothing beyond it.
Sources
- Statute — Rules on Housing Supply, article 27 (general supply of national housing). Source of the regional account ages and payment counts, the one-month contracted zone, and the 40 m² tie-break.
- Statute — Same rules, article 10 (prepayment and late payment). Source of the 24-month prepayment cap, the 250,000 won calculation, and the 60-payment minor-age cap.
- Statute — Same rules, article 9 (joining and payment conditions), for the 20,000 to 500,000 won range. Article 28 and table 2 were read in the same instrument.
- Agency guidance — Cheongyakhome, run by the Korea Real Estate Board. Actual announcements and eligibility checks live there. The figures here come from the statute, and an individual announcement takes precedence.
- Our own working — the 120-month comparison of 250,000 against 500,000 won, and the five-fold gap between 3m and 15m won, were calculated and cross-read from the tables above.
Where to check further
- Point scores by item — not checked. Table 1 carries the weighting for years without a home, dependants and account age, and it sits outside this article. Cheongyakhome offers a simulator.
- Special supply (newlyweds, first-time buyers and so on) is a different article. This piece covers general supply only.
- Whether your area is currently a regulated zone changes by Ministry of Land announcement. In a regulated zone the account age becomes two years, so it is worth checking before applying.
Written as of August 2026. The rank requirements, deposit thresholds and payment caps all come straight from the Rules on Housing Supply (in force 15 June 2026), and the ten-year comparison and the five-fold gap are our own calculations, marked as such. Individual sales are governed by their announcements, so treat this as a way of reading the articles rather than a checklist. If financing is the next question, the loan calculator follows; for tax after contract, see acquisition tax. Still weighing renting against buying? Start with jeonse versus monthly rent, and the market backdrop is in the 2026 Korean housing market.
