Korea has a different system where they don't pay rent, but they pay what's called jeonse (jun-sae). You pay about 33-50-60% the value of the property and live rent free for 2 years. At the end of the 2 years, you get your lump sum back.
The idea is that the landlord makes their money by investing the lump sum, though there seems to be risks where the landlord is unable the cough up the money at the end of the term and needs to find someone else to cough up jeonse money to pay back the original tenants.
Of course many tenants can't come up with 33% of a property, so they are also taking out a loan to come up with the money and making payments on that money to which essentially comes out to rent, but significantly cheaper.
It does seem that rent is becoming far more common in Korea now, so jeonse may be on its way out, but it is a different system, can't say that it's better or worse.
The idea is that the landlord makes their money by investing the lump sum, though there seems to be risks where the landlord is unable the cough up the money at the end of the term and needs to find someone else to cough up jeonse money to pay back the original tenants.
Of course many tenants can't come up with 33% of a property, so they are also taking out a loan to come up with the money and making payments on that money to which essentially comes out to rent, but significantly cheaper.
It does seem that rent is becoming far more common in Korea now, so jeonse may be on its way out, but it is a different system, can't say that it's better or worse.