Abstract
It is estimated that the elderly will constitute 24.3% of the entire Korean population in 2030, when about 7,125,000 baby boomers reach retirement age. Therefore, this aging phenomenon might be the most urgent issue facing Korean society. The baby boom generation shows a strong tendency to dispose of existing residences or move into new housing after retirement, thereby exerting enormous impacts on social and economic sectors as well as the housing market. Against this backdrop, this study aims to identify both factors and patterns behind baby boomer retirees' post-retirement housing transfer trends. To this end, a survey is undertaken here with respect to those baby boomers living in Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu with actual housing transfer plans in the foreseeable future, and who can act as a practical consumer group for the future housing market. This study verifies baby boomers' diverse preferences for housing type. Their preference for apartment houses still remains high in every situation, and this has significant implications for changed preferences of other housing types considering that most of the survey respondents currently reside in apartment houses. According to the survey, there are more than 80 kinds of baby boomers' housing transfer patterns, which demonstrates that more than half of the survey respondents pursue different housing mobility plans. When it comes to the factors behind their housing selection, the baby boom generation shows a strong preference for physical factors. However, environmental and psychological factors gain more momentum under unfavorable circumstances, while social factors play a decisive role in their housing selection in categories such as 'couple/deteriorating health' and 'single/healthy'.
