Settling in
A brief intro to stays, places to work, and communities in Korea, with useful links for more info on settling in.
Renting
Korean long-term renting typically involves a large upfront deposit of ₩5–20M (~$4–15K), a 13–24-month lease, and a visit to a local realty agency (부동산).
Alongside Airbnb, Booking and Agoda, there are several local options worth knowing.
Foreigner-oriented. University collaborations add a useful trust signal.
Locals-oriented with an English interface. Not all listings are furnished.
If you want to test your Korean, use 단기 to filter for short-term. Most contracts assume you already have an ARC, Korean phone number and bank account.
There are also very cheap stays — around ₩400K/mo — such as goshiwon and goshitel. They usually provide the visa documents you need, but rooms are generally very small — roughly a bed and a desk. If you consider this option, check room-tour videos on YouTube first.
Price snapshot in Gangwon-do, by city and platform A rough sense of local prices. All rents are per month.
| City | Zigbang · officetel | Zigbang · one-room | Enkostay | 33m2 | Airbnb | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size | Deposit | Rent | Size | Deposit | Rent | Size | Rent | Size | Rent | Rent | |
| Sokcho | — | ₩1–3M | ₩600K | 23 m² | ₩4–6M | ₩300–400K | — | ₩900K–2.5M | 26 m² | ₩1.2–1.6M | ~₩1.4M |
| Gangneung | 30 m² | ₩3M | ₩500K | 30 m² | ₩3–5M | ₩400–600K | 23 m² | ₩2M very few | 26 m² | ₩1.1–1.4M | ₩1.4M+ |
| Chuncheon | — | ₩5M | ₩450–700K | 29 m² | ₩2–4M | ₩300–500K | — | ₩1–1.5M | — | ₩1.1–1.4M | ₩2.7–5.4M |
| Wonju | 50 m² | ₩5M+ | ₩200K | 33 m² | ₩3–5M | ₩250–400K | — | ₩770K–1.4M | 26 m² | ₩1M | ₩680K–1M |
A rough price snapshot based on dozens of live listings hand-checked in early September 2026 for Gangwon-do. Searches were set a few months ahead to avoid last-minute and holiday pricing, and prices were compared on a one-month / four-week basis. Zigbang is listed twice because officetel and one-room listings can differ a lot in price. Enkostay and 33m2 deposits are fixed regardless of city and shown above.
Places to work
If you like to work outside your home, you might be used to coworking spaces. They are quite rare outside Seoul, but there are two common alternatives.
In Korea there is a huge culture of study cafés. They offer pretty much the same setup as a coworking space — sockets, high-speed internet, printers, snacks and meeting rooms — plus a variety of passes.
If you don't want to bother yourself with study café passes, big coffee chains like Twosome Place or Starbucks are full of sockets and people studying.
Korea widely uses its own map apps — Naver Map ↗ and Kakao Map ↗. They offer better precision and navigation than Google Maps, but even when set to English, it can be useful to search in Korean.
Can be useful. Hourly rental of spaces such as meeting rooms, usually requiring advance booking through the map app or SpaceCloud.
spacecloud.kr (KR) ↗Most probably not useful. Shared offices target business rental and address registration; reading rooms are for exam students and often don't allow laptops.
Not useful. Property and equipment rental.
You might come across workation centers in search results. Most target Korean company programs rather than individual foreign nomads. While coworking may be open to individual visitors, accommodation may require company documents. Double-check the workation center's official site.
Communities
Working as a nomad can get lonely. Here are some communities and apps you might find useful.
Koreans also use thematic KakaoTalk ↗ open chat groups.
Useful links
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