How to Find A Settlement in Busan? (Student Version)

Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Hi all! This article is a direct translation from the previous one in French.

I will write another one in Bahasa Indonesia soon!

In this article, I will tell my experience to find a place (room/house) in Busan, South Korea. When I arrived in Busan, I secured a place in the student dormitory. As time goes by, I felt uncomfortable that I cannot cook habitually because there is no kitchen in the dormitory where I lived in (actually there is one, but it only opens on tight schedule, huft). As consequence, I had to buy simple foods at minimarket near the laboratory. However, I cannot stand it any longer, finding halal food is very hard in Korea. In addition, I cannot speak Korean (basic though, not that fancy).

So, to find a nice place to live (room/house), I have to do these things:

1. Prepare the budget and specification of the room/house that you want to rent well! There are no strict criteria but as long as it can be relaxed or tightened as we wish then it is better. For example:
• Near/walking distance to the campus or to the subway station
• It has indoor kitchen or indoor bathroom
• The deposit should not be higher than 1,500,000 won, the monthly rent should not pass 200,000 won mark
• Date of moving in
• and so on
2. It is more recommendable if you can speak Korean. If you can't, there may be some agents who can speak English as well but as far as I know, their population is very scarce. However, the best choice is to bring a Korean friend or a friend who can speak Korean very well.
3. Go to budongsan (부동산) near to you or you know. 부동산 is a real estate agent who connects you with the landlord. Normally, we can see an abundance of 부동산 all over the place (especially campus or crowded places).



My 부동산 agent, her fee is expensive (for student) but her recommendations are good!

4. In the 부동산, talk to the ahjumma/ahjosshi (the 부동산 person) who will discuss our room/house criteria. If he/she has a good idea about rooms/house that match our criteria, he/she will accompany us to see and check the recommended rooms/house. Usually, he/she will drive us to the place if it is too far. But, if it's near, we will see them on foot.
• Do not worry! We can see other 부동산 also if the rooms/houses that the current 부동산 we see does not match our criteria/feelings.
5. After checking some rooms, we might already have some preference about our choice. Try to think it thoroughly and fix our choice. Don't think about it too long or the room may already be taken by someone else. Quickly contact the 부동산 agent if the choice has been made up.
6. PAY ATTENTION! We have to pay the down payment before a meeting with the landlord and the 부동산 agent (부동산 agent will organize it for us and the landlord). Usually, the payment fee amount is equal to monthly rent. The meeting organized by the 부동산 has a purpose to discuss and sign the contract of the rent. Prepare your identity card (Student card or ARC card is a good choice). The contract will have some information about:
• Our common information: name, phone number
• Landlord's information: name, bank account, phone number
• Moving information: Moving in date, contract termination date
7. After signing the contract, pay the 부동산. Unfortunately, my 부동산's fee is expensive. They cost me around 80,000 won (before that, they told me it was 90,000 won (shocked)).
8. Probably, the landlord will accompany us to the room/house first to tell us something about the place or give us the key to move some things before the real date of moving in.
9. Finally, on the date of moving in, bring all our things to the new place! Don't forget to well prepare our monthly expenditure budget nicely!

When I write this article (yesterday actually), PAY ATTENTION to the date when we moving out from our place. Tell the landlord ONE MONTH OR TWO MONTHS before your moving out date! If not, we will have to pay THREE MONTHS MONTHLY RENT AFTER CONTRACT TERMINATION.

Then, I hope this blog can help you to find a new place to live in Busan (or South Korea). Thank you. Sorry, if I write some grammatical mistake or contents mistake. I am very happy to be contacted if there is any update. See ya!

Wassalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh