Comparing Jeonse and Wolse by Total Cost
The Korean belief that "jeonse always wins" actually depends on interest rates. The true cost of jeonse is twofold: interest on any jeonse loan, plus the opportunity cost of the equity locked in the deposit — what that money would have earned in savings or investments. The true cost of wolse is the rent you pay plus the opportunity cost of its (much smaller) deposit. This calculator puts both on one basis and compares total cost over your stay.
The math: jeonse cost = loan × loan rate × years + (deposit − loan) × expected return × years; wolse cost = rent × 12 × years + wolse deposit × expected return × years. Free cash is assumed to earn your input rate, so opportunity cost applies only to locked-up money. For example, a 300M KRW jeonse (150M loan at 4.0%) vs a 30M deposit with 800K rent at a 2.5% expected return over 2 years gives 19.5M vs 20.7M — jeonse wins by 1.2M KRW.
The key metric is the break-even rent: below it wolse wins, above it jeonse wins. In the example above it is about 750,000 KRW/month — if you can rent the same home for less, wolse is the better deal. Higher loan rates or higher expected returns push the break-even up, widening the range where wolse wins.
Tips: jeonse carries deposit-return risk (falling jeonse prices), so factoring in deposit guarantee insurance narrows the gap further. Maintenance-fee differences, brokerage, and moving costs are not modeled. Use the jeonse-rent conversion calculator for deposit-to-rent trade-offs and the prepay-vs-invest calculator for what to do with a lump sum. This tool is a simulation whose result depends on your assumptions.