hankyoreh

By Lee Jae-uk, staff reporter.

University student Kim Sun-yoo recently started to look for a ‘rooftop room’ to live in. “Rooftop rooms often appear on television shows and they look fine for living. I’m considering moving out of a studio flat where I live now for a rooftop room,” Kim said.

Many TV shows have described rooftop rooms as romantic, mentioning ‘fireworks that light up the night sky’, ‘barbeque parties with urban night views’ and ‘romantic times playing guitar with friends’. Rooftop rooms were typically regarded as the worst place to live, like semi-basement rooms. But instead of unpleasant images of rooftop rooms as small, hot, cold, humid and vulnerable to crimes, romantic images such as broad ‘rooftop garden’ with nice night scenes and a refreshing breeze were emphasized. Due to these unrealistic images, people like Kim, have appeared seeking to live in rooftop rooms.

“In the past, it was people with little money or elderly people who sought rooftop rooms, but lately many students ask about rooftop rooms because they want to try living there once,” said Yoo Ki-soo, a real estate agent in Seoul’s Dongdaemun district.

However, the reality of rooftop rooms is starkly different from the images made by TV. Rooftop rooms are originally constructed for non-residential purposes, such as storage, then remodeled for housing. They are usually in poor conditions and not equipped with basic facilities such as gas, kitchen or bathrooms.

Above all, rooftop rooms are accident-prone because they are mostly assembled with flammable materials. On July 29, there was a fire in the rooftop room of a three-story building in southwest Seoul and a person surnamed Nam died. The fire broke out in the rooftop room’s kitchen where there was some faulty electric wiring. The fire quickly spread to the room’s structural insulated panels. Nam jumped down from the rooftop to avoid the fire and died.

Nowadays is the toughest time for those who live in rooftop rooms - the heatwave that comes at the end of the monsoon season. Rooftop rooms exposed directly to sunlight are sizzling hot. “I lay still like a dead body until the sun goes down,” said 78-year-old surnamed Yang, who has lived alone for 8 years in a rooftop room in Dongdaemun district. He moves as little as possible so as to not generate any heat. Yang lives on social welfare assistance and does not even have an electric fan. He makes do with a hand fan because he doesn’t have money for an electric fan, or for electricity bills.

With a 5 million won (US$4,826) deposit, Yang pays 300,000 won (US$290) each month in rent. However, this 13.2㎡ area room does not have a kitchen. There is a ‘place to cook’ outside the room, but the water pipe freezes easily in winter because the place does not have a door. Yang will soon lose his rooftop view due to the construction of apartments just 100 from his building.

A university graduate surnamed Oh, also lives in a rooftop room of a studio apartment building in Seoul’s Jegi neighborhood. While the rooftop room rents for 350,000 won (US$338) a month, a studio flat in the same building costs 500,000 won (US$483) every month. “I live in the rooftop room to save as much money as possible,” said Oh who is looking for a job.

Outdoor fans from air-conditioners on the rooftop increase the temperature of the rooftop room Oh lives in. Since Oh’s rooftop room isn’t legal, resident registration or a moving-in notification is impossible. Oh wrote down his friend’s address on resident registration in order to receive mail from public offices. “Once I could not receive mail and my health insurance payments were overdue. Sometimes I ran into friends who live in studio rooms of this building. I envy them,” said Oh.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s ‘housing survey’ of 2012, 7,350 households among over 17.73 million all urban households (0.04% of the total) are rooftop rooms. 2010’s survey found that 47,708 households (0.3%) were rooftop rooms. The improvement of living conditions can explain this statistical decrease. On the other hand, it is also estimated that quite a few rooftop rooms have not been counted in the survey because most of them aren’t legal.

“There is no fantasy in living on a rooftop. It’s just the reality of life,” said a tenant surnamed Chun. The newlywed Chun made home in rooftop room, paying 250,000 won (US$241) per month with a 5 million won (US$4826) deposit in eastern Seoul.

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