Definition
In Korea, the housing subscription savings account (jutaek cheongyak tongjang) is a government-approved savings account you open to qualify for buying newly built apartments. If you save a set amount steadily each month, you earn priority for a new apartment based on how long you've held the account, how many deposits you've made, and how much you've saved in total.
A Special Number Ticket for Buying a New Apartment
Go to a popular bakery and you'll see people lined up long before it opens. The bakery hands out number tickets and gives people a chance to buy bread in number order. The new apartment market works in a very similar way. Plenty of people want to live in a newly built apartment, but the number of homes available is always limited.
So in Korea, the government and builders don't sell homes to just anyone. They follow fair rules and give the first chance to people holding a ticket. The financial product that serves as that official ticket is the housing subscription savings account. Its formal name is "housing subscription comprehensive savings" (jutaek cheongyak jonghap jeochuk).
Any citizen of the Republic of Korea can open one, regardless of age or whether they own a home, limited to one account per person. This account is not just a deposit account. It's the key to earning the official subscription eligibility to buy a new apartment.
The Points System That Raises Your Odds of Winning
Getting a number ticket doesn't mean everyone gets their turn at an apartment in the same order. Among all the people in line, points are used to fairly sort out who needs a home most urgently. This is called the "subscription points system" (cheongyak gajeomje).
The points come from three main items. First is the account holding period, which looks at how long you've kept the account. Second is the period you've gone without owning a home in your name. Third is the number of dependents, meaning the family members who live with you. The more dependents you have and the longer you've gone without a home, the more your score rises.
The system has a maximum of 84 points, and the higher your score, the better your chance of winning a popular apartment with fierce competition. That's why many experts advise opening an account as early as possible, even as a young person starting a first job, to lock in points for your holding period early.
To Be More Precise: National Housing vs. Private Housing
To be more precise, the key criteria for using your account differ depending on the type of apartment you want. Apartments fall broadly into "national housing," built by public agencies, and "private housing," built by ordinary private construction companies.
For national housing supplied by public agencies such as LH and SH, what matters is how steadily, and how much, you've put in each month. There is a cap on the amount recognized per month, so people who keep paying the maximum recognized amount every month for a long time, with no missed payments, have the advantage.
For private housing built by private construction companies, on the other hand, the focus is less on how many times you've deposited each month. The key is to keep the minimum deposit required for your region and unit size, and to follow the strategy of raising your points score described earlier. In other words, how you prepare depends on which kind of apartment you're aiming for.
Common misconceptions
If you put tens of millions of won into the account in one lump sum, you automatically get first priority.
For public sale housing (national housing), there is a cap on the amount recognized per month (up to 250,000 won a month). Paying steadily and building up the number of monthly deposits matters far more than putting in a big sum at once.
If you already own a home, the account is useless.
Your priority is lower than that of people without a home, but chances still exist for homeowners too, such as the lottery-based units in private housing, where residents are chosen by drawing lots.
Where you meet it
A young person starting a first job starts paying into the account every month right when they turn twenty, like putting money into a regular savings plan, to build up holding-period points.
After marrying and having a child, someone adds to their number of dependents, fills out their period without a home, and goes for a popular new-town apartment.
In one sentence
This account is opened to get the chance to buy a new apartment, and the earlier you open it and the longer you keep paying, the stronger your position for getting a home.