Young entrepreneur works to make housing more affordable

By Kim Se-jeong

Shin Ji-yea

Shin Ji-yea, 27, is a resident of Mapo in Seoul, and owns a company called Today Maker.

Her company is an unusual one. She spearheaded a renovation project of an apartment building that is almost 40 years old in the neighborhood of Mangwon-dong and rented the flats at low rates to young entrepreneurs.

The company has so far renovated four flats and rented them to a bookstore owner and an independent artist, who pay 100,000 won monthly rent with a 3 million won deposit.

“I have seen many young people with great business ideas discouraged because they couldn’t afford rent for their work spaces. I wanted to help them solve that problem,” Shin said during a recent interview with The Korea Times.

The apartment with 104 flats was built in 1971. Old and small, the owners moved out and never came back. Only 30 flats are currently occupied, and most residents are old.

In Seoul, buildings don’t usually stay up for 40 years. They’re destroyed and rebuilt after 20 or 30 years. The apartment building also faced the threat of demolition, but the attempts failed because it was difficult to find the owners of each flat and construction companies did not see that demolition was economically viable.

Her company makes no money at the moment. So far, she receives subsidies from the city government or companies. “This is a little bit of headache, but I am sure something will work out.”

To solve this financial problem, she is thinking of expanding the renovation project.

Shin said the apartment residents welcomed her project. “Old residents say they are happy to see young tenants moving in to such an old place. We hang out together. They bring us food sometimes to share. It has become a sense of community.”

Shin is a member of the Green Party Korea and is the party’s candidate to be a proportional representative. The Green Party has no seat in the parliament now, but hopes to get one proportional seat in the upcoming general election.

“I think it’s time for politics to change. To better help young entrepreneurs, we need to change the system, which we can do only through politics.”