“We were promised 20 years of housing. We trusted the government and never made other plans in the meantime,” reads a statement issued in May by residents of a long-term public rental housing complex in Gangil-dong, eastern Seoul. Tenants of another complex in Seoul’s Songpa District echoed the sentiment, urging the city to reverse what they called “an unfair policy” and address “growing insecurity over our housing future.” “Our request is a legitimate exercise of our rights, both morally and legally,” they wrote in a statement in July. These residents are among the first participants in Seoul’s long-term lease housing program, launched in 2007 by the Seoul Housing & Urban Development Corporation. Designed for households without homes, the scheme offers apartments in exchange for a lump-sum deposit, typically around 80 percent of prevailing “jeonse” prices but often far less. In return, tenants can stay for up to 20 years, but the houses are not up for sale for occupants and are instead recycled to new eligible households. As the first wave of 20-year leases appro