Only 5% of Housing in Japan Available to Those Aged 65 and Older... Challenges for South Korea's Elderly Rental Market

In Japan's elderly rental market, cases of being refused entry due to old age are occurring frequently. The phenomenon of refusing elderly tenants is emerging as a social problem, with even elderly individuals who have sufficient economic capability or creditworthiness taking several months to find rental housing.

Only 5% of Properties Available to the Elderly... Japan's Rental Market Avoidance of 'Accident-Prone Properties'

According to the explanation in the video, the phenomenon of landlords refusing elderly tenants is spreading overall in Japan due to issues such as solitary deaths, dementia, or unpaid rent among the elderly. According to a survey by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, 90.9% of the reasons for limiting the entry of the elderly are due to anxiety regarding death accidents within the residence. From the landlord's perspective, there is a tendency to fundamentally block the entry of the elderly to avoid the burdens of special cleaning, residue disposal, and prolonged vacancies that occur if a death is discovered late.

As a real-life example, a case was mentioned where an elderly doctor living in Setagaya Ward tried to move near his son's hospital but was refused tenancy due to his age, failing to find a house for more than three months. The representative of a real estate agency specializing in the elderly mentioned that rental properties available to those aged 65 and older account for only 5% of the total. Based on a 2025 survey, the estimated number of solitary deaths among those aged 65 and older in Japan is 58,919, which is a level where approximately 161 people occur on average per day.

Differences Between Japan's 'Act on Promotion of Offering of Rental Housing to Persons Requiring Special Assistance in Securing Housing' and South Korea's 'Individual-Centered' Rental Structure

To resolve these issues, Japan enacted and operates the 'Act on Promotion of Offering of Rental Housing to Persons Requiring Special Assistance in Securing Housing (Safety Net Act)' in 2007. This law contains contents to allow the use of private vacant rental housing for those requiring special assistance in securing housing, such as the elderly, low-income earners, and the disabled. As of March 2025, the number of registered Safety Net houses reaches approximately 946,000 households.

Distinct differences also appear in the rental market structures of the two countries. In Japan, the rental market is corporatized, with 71% of rental housing owners entrusting management to professional management companies. In contrast, 95% of the rental market in South Korea consists of individual rentals. The video analyzed that in the case of South Korea, because the system to distribute the risks of post-event processing, such as solitary deaths or unpaid rent, is relatively weak within the individual rental market, the problem of refusing elderly tenants is likely to become more serious when entering a super-aged society in the future.

South Korea's 'Isolation'-Centered Housing Policy and the Housing Gap for the Middle Class

Among elderly households in South Korea, 19.3% reside in rental housing, and the relative poverty rate for the retirement age group aged 65 and older is shown to be approximately 39.8%. In particular, in the case of elderly people without homes, there is a high risk of falling into absolute poverty due to a lack of income sources. Currently, housing support in South Korea is fragmented into public rental for low-income groups, welfare housing for the elderly, and silver towns for asset owners.

The video pointed out that South Korea's policy remains stuck in an 'isolation'-centered perspective that attempts to gather specific targets, such as the elderly or dementia patients, into separate facilities. This contrasts with the 'Aging in Place' concept being promoted in Japan, in which the entire village possesses elderly care infrastructure to help the elderly continue living in their existing residential areas. As of the end of 2025, among 283 elderly residential welfare facilities nationwide, elderly welfare housing accounts for only 47 locations, which is insufficient to accommodate South Korea's population aged 65 and older, which has exceeded 10 million.