Unique Attractions of One-Person Household written by 10320 Lee Eun-chae

 

Recently, one-person household rates keep increasing in Korea. The proportion of single-person households has been increasing as society ages with the delay of marriage rates since the 2000s. The highest increase in the number of single-person Korean household is in their 40s and 50s.

 

Lifestyle

The increase in the proportion of single-person households made a huge impact on each industry, including the housing, food and home appliance markets. The government introduced the concept of urban living housing to handle the increasing demand for housing. As the number of single-person households increases and the number of four-person households decreases, the real estate industry is also paying attention to the related market. They try to make their products more diverse.

Co-living is a growing trend in the shared accommodation space that offers the comfort of living in quality homes with communal life. Co-living spaces provide housekeeping and maintenance services, so that the residents can optimize their work-life balance, and also allow them to freely interact with other co-residents at various communal spaces within the building.

Tree house

For example, Yeoksam Kolon House introduced a luxury share house called “Treehouse” in Seoul, in December, 2018. It is the first share house from Kolon House Vision, a subsidiary of the Kolon Global Corporation, the construction affiliate of the Kolon Group.

The apartments are tiny. The floor area of the smallest room is 16.5 square meters, loft excluded. The largest is 36.4 square meters. Monthly rents run from 1.19 million won ($1,057) to 1.69 million won, maintenance fees excluded.

Each of the 72 apartments looks out over the atrium and is set either north or south of it. It has large communal areas such as kitchen facilities, lounge space, a study space, an office area and a laundry room are on the first and second floor.

Residents of Treehouse can enjoy the cavernous space at the center of the building.

The building is different from others. All of the units get exposure to sunlight, very different from most buildings, where only certain, prized units on high-floors and with southern exposure get significant natural light. Treehouse has its own unique smartphone application through which the residents can access at any time to check and control their private units.

Technology

As the number of households increases, small houses for one to two people will be developed in the future, incorporating technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). Smart City and high-tech houses can incorporate a variety of ideas. By using AI devices linked with refrigerators, they provide data about how products are consumed from refrigerators. Another idea is to prevent personal information from being exposed by using QR codes. In the future, related industries are expected to develop small housing brands for one to two-person households to build a different image.

 

Food Style

In the food market, the sales of home convenience stores jumped 44 percent year-on-year and the sales of cup side dishes rose 53 percent due to a surge in sales of home convenience stores and convenience stores.

In the home appliance market, small-sized products such as electric rice cookers for single people are more likely to be released or borrowed rather than purchased home appliances. As a result, the domestic home appliance rental market grew from about 3 trillion won in 2006 to 10 trillion won in 2012.

Other Aspects

Eric Kleinenberg, a sociology professor at the University of New York, called the social changes caused by the increase in single-person households the solo economy. He wrote that the number of single-person households increased rapidly and the attraction of living alone increased with the growing number of high-income.

Nowadays, one-person household is spread over the world. Many companies try to make unique and easy items for a person who lives alone.

As you can see in TV programs, many celebrities show their solo life. Except for lifestyles and food styles, there are lot of things to enjoy. For example, one-person coin singing room is famous for young people.

Also, new words about single life are used by many people. They can reduce their stress by enjoying diverse one-person enjoyments. On the weekends, how about having your own time and do everything whatever that you want to do?

 

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