housing

How normal is it to be asked for extra cash on top of key money + rent?

Posted by Sara Kim in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon.

S
Sara Kim@sara-abroad
about 19 hours agoYeongtong-gu, Suwon
I found a place that looked fine, then the agent started adding cleaning fees, building fee, and another random move-in cost that wasn’t mentioned in the first message. I know housing paperwork here can get messy, but I’m trying to figure out what is actually standard in Korea and what is just someone testing me because I’m foreign. What fees do you automatically push back on?
1 comments

Discussion

1 reply

Sign in to join the conversation

Reading stays open, but posting replies requires an account so profiles, moderation, and trust signals stay meaningful.

L

Maintenance fee is normal, and a clearly stated cleaning fee at move-in or move-out is not unusual either. What I would push back on is anything vague, last-minute, or explained like “this is just how Korea does it” without it being written into the contract. If an agent starts adding random cash items after you already showed interest, that is usually my signal to slow the whole thing down and ask for a full itemized breakdown before paying anything.

Want to reply or report?

Sign in to reply or report.

Content classification

Status: housing

Confidence: 0.97

Reason: Housing deposit and fee confusion is a common Korea-specific pain point.