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1 in 7 Seoul citizens spends over 2 hours commuting
A commuter taps a transit card at the turnstile of a subway station in Seoul, June 29. Yonhap
By Park Ung
Soaring housing prices main cause of long travel
Nearly 14 percent of Seoul residents spend at least two hours a day commuting to work or school, according to the Seoul Institute.
The findings suggest that longer travel times cut into leisure and social activities and are linked to lower life satisfaction.
Citing a Seoul Metropolitan Government survey, the institute’s recent report said that, as of 2023, citizens spent 34.5 minutes on average on one-way trips to work or school.
The report found that 13.5 percent of residents spent more than an hour traveling one way, meaning their round trip takes at least two hours. Another 4.5 percent spent at least 90 minutes commuting or traveling to school, meaning a three-hour round trip each day.
Residents with one-way commutes of more than an hour were concentrated in outer districts such as Yangcheon, Gangdong, Gangbuk and Dobong.
A 2013 Korea Transport Institute report estimated the economic value of a one-hour commute was 940,000 won ($676) per month. This means if a person spends two hours commuting, they would see losses worth nearly 2 million won per month for the time that could otherwise be used for other activities or rest.
The Seoul Institute cited soaring housing prices as the main cause of long commutes, noting that since the 2010s, urbanization and a more complex metropolitan area have driven people to cheaper homes in remoter regions of Seoul or Gyeonggi Province.
Apartment buildings cover Seoul as viewed from Mount Nam, Aug. 10. Yonhap
According to the Bank of Korea, home prices in Seoul jumped 112.3 percent from late 2013 to May this year, outpacing the nationwide average rise of 42.9 percent.
Real estate platform Dabang said last month that the average sale price of an 84-square-meter apartment in Seoul in the second quarter was just over 1.32 billion won, up 1.2 percent from a year earlier. That was about 220 percent of the national average, which stood at just over 602 million won.
The report said the most effective way to reduce commute times would be to expand infrastructure — extending urban rail lines and building new expressways and underground roads — but such projects require huge budgets and considerable time.