Renting in Seongdong-gu: Prices for Small Seoul Homes up to 40 m²

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We looked at 781 new monthly-rent contracts for small homes (up to 40 m², no apartments) in Seongdong-gu (성동구), signed between July 27, 2026 and October 23, 2026. You'll find typical rents and deposits, differences by housing type and neighborhood, and a free advice center in Seoul. ━━━━━━━━━━ 💸 Typical rent: ₩550,000 a month The basis is 781 reported new contracts with monthly rent (월세, Wolse) for homes up to 40 m² in Seongdong-gu. They cover officetels, villas and houses with several units. Apartments are not included. The data comes from the City of Seoul's open data. The typical monthly rent (median) is ₩550,000 (≈ $410). The middle half of the contracts falls between ₩400,000 (≈ $298) and ₩750,000 (≈ $560). On top of that comes a typical deposit (median) of ₩10 million (≈ $7,460). The middle half of deposits ranges from ₩5 million (≈ $3,730) to ₩30 million (≈ $22,380). Dollar values are rounded and calculated at 1 USD = 1340.47 KRW. For comparison: In August 2026, the average monthly rent for multi-family housing in Seoul hit a record ₩675,000 (≈ $504), and the average deposit was ₩61.17 million (≈ $45,630), according to the Korea Real Estate Board (Korea Herald). These figures are averages for all of Seoul and can't be compared directly with our median values for small homes in Seongdong-gu. 👉 For you: For a small home in Seongdong-gu, plan for a deposit as well as the rent. The range is wide: the middle half is ₩5 to ₩30 million. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🏠 Officetel, villa or house: What 23 m² costs The typical floor area (median) in the contracts we analyzed is 23 m². Rent and deposit differ clearly by housing type. Officetel (오피스텔): median rent ₩750,000 (≈ $560), median deposit ₩10 million (≈ $7,460), based on 208 contracts. Villa (연립다세대, small multi-family building): median rent ₩550,000 (≈ $410), but a median deposit of ₩25 million (≈ $18,650), based on 123 contracts. House with several units (단독다가구): median rent ₩500,000 (≈ $373), median deposit ₩10 million (≈ $7,460). With 450 contracts, this is the most common type in this analysis. 👉 For you: If you want to put down a small deposit, look at the housing type: here the villa has the highest typical deposit, and the house with several units has the lowest rent. ━━━━━━━━━━ 📍 Cheaper and pricier areas in Seongdong-gu There are differences within Seongdong-gu too. We only show neighborhoods with at least 20 contracts, each with its median rent. Cheapest: Songjeong-dong (송정동) at ₩470,000 (≈ $351), based on 77 contracts, and Sageun-dong (사근동) at ₩500,000 (≈ $373), based on 59 contracts. Most expensive: Doseon-dong (도선동) at ₩810,000 (≈ $604), based on 47 contracts, and Hawangsimni-dong (하왕십리동) at ₩700,000 (≈ $522), based on 51 contracts. So the range from the cheapest to the most expensive neighborhood is ₩470,000 to ₩810,000. 👉 For you: Compare several neighborhoods when you search. These figures are only medians, and individual homes can differ a lot. ━━━━━━━━━━ ⚖️ Deposit and rent: Comparing Wolse Korea has two types of rental: Jeonse (전세), where you pay a very large, refundable deposit instead of monthly rent, and monthly rent (월세, Wolse), which means a deposit plus rent. In our data, with a deposit of up to ₩10 million (≈ $7,460), the median rent was ₩580,000 (≈ $433), based on 484 contracts. With a deposit of more than ₩10 million, it was ₩500,000 (≈ $373), based on 297 contracts. According to the Korea Herald, many foreigners find it hard to get a loan for a Jeonse deposit and therefore choose monthly rent. In the Seoul Survey 2024, 52.5% of the foreigners surveyed lived on monthly rent, compared with 28% of all Seoul residents. 👉 For you: In this data, a higher deposit went along with a lower median rent. This compares medians and is no promise for your own home. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🆘 Free rental advice in Seoul According to the Korea Herald, foreigners' most common problems are communicating with the landlord and getting the deposit back. The Seoul Global Center connects them with experts for this. The Seoul Foreign Residents Support Center in Yeongdeungpo (Daelim-dong) offers free rental advice against Jeonse fraud, on Mondays from 2 to 5 pm, with English-speaking agents (Korea Times, as of November 17, 2024). It's best to check the hours before you visit. Contact: phone 2229-4900, email help@sfrc.seoul.kr, info at global.seoul.go.kr. Seoul also has "Global Real Estate Agencies": 293 agents who speak foreign languages, 219 of them English. Most are in Yongsan (54), Gangnam (32) and Seocho (31). The list is on the city's website. 👉 For you: According to the Korea Herald, the center advises getting help early, ideally before you sign. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Sources Stadt Seoul – Open Data: Mietverträge (서울시 부동산 전월세가 정보) https://data.seoul.go.kr/dataList/OA-21276/S/1/datasetView.do Korea Herald via Asia News Network – Rising rents narrow housing choices for Seoul's foreign residents (01.10.2026) https://asianews.network/?p=305016 Korea Times – Seoul to combat home lease fraud with multilingual counseling (17.11.2024) https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/amp/southkorea/society/20241117/seoul-to-combat-home-lease-fraud-with-multilingual-counseling ━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 How did you find your home in Seoul, and how much deposit and rent do you pay? What tips do you have for others? 📲 On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lebeninkorea_en/ 📸 Photos: Brother Yoon, HANVIN CHEONG, Dohyuk You, Maksim Larin, Marek Piwnicki, Marissa Lewis (Unsplash); Seoul Tourism Organization, Korea Tourism Organization, Lee Bumsu (KOGL Type 1)