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| Young tenants pose for a photo at Sinheung Market in Haebangchon, central Seoul, Monday. From left are leather craftsman Park Ki-dong, jewelry designer Kim Sae-rom and cafe owner Jang Kyung-Hoon. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
But worries of gentrification surface
By Lee Suh-yoon
Sinheung Market, a small U-shaped alley at the top of the hill in Haebangchon, central Seoul, strikes an uncanny balance between old and new.
Workshops selling artisanal goods line the ground floors of half-a-century-old brick buildings. The butcher's shop sits right next to a glass-walled Thai restaurant cloaked in white linen curtains. N Seoul Tower looms above the unfinished roof frames covering the street.
Burrowed into a wall left of the entrance, a small room churns out bags of sweaters. In the 1970s, the area was full of family-run businesses that supplied knitwear to the Namdaemun clothing market at the northern foot of Mount Nam. In those days, Sinheung Market was packed with people. Women who worked in these small factories bought their groceries here before returning home.
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| A street view of Sinheung Market on Monday afternoon. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
But as the knitwear business trickled to a stop in the 1980s — mostly due to competition from China — the market died with it.
In November 2016, Sinheung Market's landlords and the Seoul Metropolitan Government struck a deal to salvage the dying market: The city would use taxpayer money to renovate buildings and roads. In return, all 44 landowners agreed not to raise rent prices for at least six years to protect tenants from the subsequent rise in property prices.
"The collective agreement on the rent cap was possible because all the landlords here know each other. They persuaded each other to take the opportunity to save the market," said Lee, a city official at Haebangchon Urban Regeneration Center who asked to be identified only by his surname.
"They also understand the financial difficulties of running a business as they themselves were shopkeepers on these streets once."
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| Young people walk in Sinheung Market, Monday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
The city's plan is to attract young craftsmen and create an art market.
Kim Sae-rom, a jewelry designer who opened her workshop in 2016, pays 400,000 won ($360) a month for a 30-square-meter space there.
"I was able to renew my contract with the building owner for the same rent in March with no trouble," Kim said in an interview at her shop. "The low rent helps me focus on honing my craft rather than trying to sell as many goods as possible."
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| A view of a cafe window at Sinheung Market / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
Park Il-song, head of the local merchants association, played a central role in getting the local landlords to sign on to the rent cap.
"The moment the tenants find the rent too burdensome, it's over — the market will die," Park said.
Social experiments like these are not uncommon in Haebangchon, sometimes referred to as "a neighborhood built by outsiders." The area was first populated by Korean War refugees from the North, later joined by farmers displaced during the nation's industrialization and more recently, young workers, artists and foreigners seeking affordable living spaces.
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| Park Il-song, 77, stands in front of his grocery store selling dried noodles, Monday. The store was set up by Park's relative in the early 1950s, during the formative stages of Sinheung Market . / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
But changes — and some displacement — have been inevitable after the urban regeneration project started, Park says.
"In the last two years, the flour mills, oil-pressers and side dish shops all closed because the shopkeepers are too old to continue and they can rent the space to younger people," Park said.
"The rent did rise a little, and migrant laborers who used to rent out small rooms for 100,000 won a month left after the renovations pushed up their rent to around 200,000 won."
The collective resolve on the rent cap has been challenged in recent months as the neighborhood attracted more visitors following media coverage of its "hip" new shops and restaurants.
Landlords still mostly follow the rent cap. Six landlords, according to Park, sold their properties and left, and the new ones, who came with investment purposes, demand rents almost double or triple the original level.
It's not hard to see that gentrification has taken a firm hold in the neighborhood.
"I'm a little confused as to why most of the new shops are all cafes," Park added. "And there aren't any shops that cater to the daily lives of Haebangchon residents."
Park Ki-dong, a young leather craftsman at Sinheung Market, says he's unsure whether to view the situation in a negative light.
"The rent is still reasonable," he said. "Gentrification is not great but, admit it, people still open their wallets for it."
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