The research platform for Seoul’s living sector
Professional operators run almost none of Seoul’s places to live. That is the opening.
- Rental housing
- Student housing
- Co-living
- Flexible living
Behind it is Remarble Earth, a record of every operator, building and deal in Seoul’s living sector.
1 in 265households
in Seoul lives in a place run by a professional operator.
20 operators run at least 15,676 homes and rooms in 131 buildings. Seoul had 4.16 million households in 2024.
The operator map →
42deals
in the living sector on record, with 13 investors named.
Dated deals run from 2018 to 2026. Global and domestic capital is already buying.
The capital map →
29.5x
home price to income, the 4th-highest of 12 cities.
Yet rent takes 25.5% of a salary, the lowest of the 12. Buying is out of reach, but renting is not.
Affordability →
Latest · Brief
Seoul's living stock, mapped: five sectors, entered through a local operator
Remarble Earth tracks 131 operator-run assets and 20 operators in Seoul, across five sectors from the hotel night to the two-year lease. An investor enters through a local operator, and with a trusted one the market's room to grow is within reach.
2026-10-28 · 6 min · Charmin Cho
Read the brief →
Data sources
Remarble Earth data as of October 2026. Macro series are complete only to December 2025, because each source publishes with its own lag.
Insights
Seoul living, read from the record.
Brief
Where Seoul's foreign visitors go — and where the growth is
Seoul's flexible-living rooms sell to foreign visitors. Their demand is concentrated in five districts but grows fastest outside them. Set against the operators already there, the data point to Seongdong-gu, where demand is rising steeply and operators are few. The data say nothing about occupancy.
Demand · 2026.09.29 · 8 min
Deal Note
Three deals, one kind of address
In August, a sovereign fund, a pension plan and a domestic asset manager each moved into Seoul's living sector. Each took a different route, but all three chose a university district. Remarble Earth's data shows what those districts share.
Capital & deals · 2026.09.24 · 6 min
Essay
Why now, why Living?
Five houses' 2026 outlooks favor Asia-Pacific living, yet the region draws only 12% of the capital raised for the sector worldwide. Households that cannot buy and supply that cannot respond explain why that gap is closing now. Seoul sits early on the curve, where rising rents and maturing pricing can both lift value.
APAC · 2026.09.24 · 8 min
Essay
Demand, supply, capital
Seoul is losing residents but gaining households, and those households cannot afford to buy. They rent, now mostly by the month, while new supply has collapsed and rents rise at a record pace. Monthly rent is a cash flow institutions can underwrite, and their capital has begun to arrive.
Demand · 2026.09.24 · 8 min
Deal-note street imagery © NAVER.
01 · Asia Pacific
Seoul against its peers
Six markets compared on rates, home prices and currencies. Each market's map is shaded by its latest reading.
Six markets side by side
Policy rates, bond yields, inflation, unemployment, home prices and currencies against the dollar, compared across five Asia Pacific markets and the United States. Each market's map is shaded by its latest reading.
The change in home prices over a year in each gateway city, from the city's own index. Tokyo and Osaka use resale condo prices per m². Blue marks a rise, gray a fall.
+10.58%
Korea Real Estate Board index
▲ 5.76 pt on a year
-1.60%
REINS resale condo prices
▼ 14.80 pt on a year
-4.28%
REINS resale condo prices
▼ 11.83 pt on a year
-7.00%
Cotality Home Value Index
▼ 10.00 pt on a year
-6.20%
Cotality Home Value Index
▼ 8.10 pt on a year
+2.91%
URA index, via BIS
▼ 0.53 pt on a year
+12.05%
RVD index, via BIS
▲ 18.36 pt on a year
+5.74%
Case-Shiller New York index
▼ 0.70 pt on a year
-2.22%
UK House Price Index
▼ 2.22 pt on a year
More on Macro:How far each sector has gone mainstream →Purchase burden against rent burden →
The Seoul Living Brief
One data-led brief on Seoul living, every other Friday.
Written for institutional investors, family offices and operators across APAC. No news round-ups — one structural question per issue, with the data behind it.
02 · Seoul
Who houses the city
This chapter shows where operators' buildings stand, which sectors house Seoul's renters and visitors, and the operators Remarble profiles in depth.
Where has the stock landed?
Five sectors, by length of stay
Seoul's living and hospitality sectors run from a night in a hotel to a two-year lease. The longer the stay, the less a sector swings with the economy and the fewer staff each room needs. Each operator appears under its main sector, and under any other sector it also runs. The grouping is Remarble's reading of what each operator runs, not the buildings' registered use.
Hotel
Flexible living
Co-living
Student housing
Rental housing
| Hotel | Flexible living | Co-living | Student housing | Rental housing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stay and lease | A night to a week, booked by the night | A night to a few months, by the night or the month | A month to a year, on a flexible lease | A semester or a year, set by the academic calendar | Two years, renewable, with a deposit and monthly rent |
| Who stays | Tourists and business travelers | Foreign visitors on longer trips, business travelers, families and groups | Young single workers, many from abroad | University students, a growing share from abroad | One- and two-person households and young couples |
| What comes with it | Fully furnished, serviced daily | Furnished, with a kitchen and laundry | A furnished room, with shared kitchens and lounges | A furnished studio beside campus | Varies, from bare to furnished |
| Exposure to the economy | High | High | Medium | Low | Low |
| Staff per room | High | Medium: check-in and service run contactless | Medium | Medium | Low |
| Seoul's main hurdle | Labor costs, and visitor numbers that swing | Lodging licenses set who may stay and for how long | Few sites large enough, and few operators at scale | Small sites beside campuses, and competition from private studios | A 5% cap on rent increases at renewal, and high construction costs |
| Who runs it in Seoul | Global and Korean chains run Seoul's hotels: Marriott, Accor, IHG, Hilton, Lotte and Shilla Stay, among others. Also: UHC, Union Place | Also: Stayes, Homes, Union Place, Cove | Also: Stayes, Current Page | Also: GH Partners | Also: MGRV, Weave Living, Woozoo |
Operator profiles
Seoul operators, in depth
Headline figures for 3 operators are shown here. Each operator’s page carries the full profile.
These three operators are Remarble's strategic partners in Seoul's living sector: operators with buildings to buy, develop and operate. Each profile is written from material the operator supplied and published with its sign-off. Every figure on their profiles is marked with its source (Remarble Earth, the operator, the company's accounts, or Remarble's own arithmetic), and the partnership does not affect any board elsewhere on this site.
In-depth profileWECO STAYWECO STAY
Flexible living
Flexible living in central Seoul: the same furnished room for a night or for months, run from one head office
- operating in Seoul
- 7assets, Earth-verified
- in seven buildings
- 601rooms, operator-reported
- of 2025's guests from abroad
- 73%, operator-reported
E verified against Remarble Earth · O reported by the operator
Read the profile →
In-depth profileStayes
PBSA
Student housing near Seoul's campuses: acquired, renovated and rented by one group
- operating in Seoul
- 13assets, Earth-verified
- of tenants in its three owned buildings from abroad
- 44%, operator-reported
- in progress
- 3deals, operator-reported
E verified against Remarble Earth · O reported by the operator
Read the profile →
In-depth profileDeohamWE STAY
Social development
Build, live, grow: a social developer that stays to run what it builds
- WE STAY co-operative rental, delivered
- 1,030homes, operator-reported
- at Noryangjin, completing 2028
- 397homes, operator-reported
- below market rent for an 84㎡ WE STAY home
- ~40%, operator-reported
E verified against Remarble Earth · O reported by the operator
Read the profile →
Seoul Living Operator Map
Every building in Seoul we can attribute to a named living operator. Members can filter by operator and see each building’s name, address and units. Membership is free.
Of 141 assets on file, 131 are operating and 10 announced but not yet operating (hollow markers). The map plots 127. The other 14 have no coordinate, and 7 of them are announced. Members can filter by operator and see each building’s name, address and units.
Remarble Earth
The database behind this research.
Remarble Earth holds macro, regional, operator and asset-level data on Seoul’s living sector. It covers building-level valuation, transaction history and demand, in English and Korean.