Before a lease ends, tenants should know this: under Korea's Housing Lease Protection Act, which statement about contract renewal is correct?

Korea's Housing Lease Protection Act gives a tenant the one-time legal right to demand a renewal of their lease before its term ends, which effectively guarantees roughly four years of total tenancy across the original term plus the renewal, and it also caps how much rent can be raised when that renewal happens. This law was designed to give tenants meaningful security against sudden eviction or runaway rent increases mid-tenancy.

A landlord cannot simply force a tenant out on demand once this renewal right applies, and the contract does not renew indefinitely on its own either — the protection is specifically a single guaranteed renewal, not an unlimited or automatic one.

Because the renewal right and rent cap interact, disputes sometimes arise over exactly how much a landlord can raise rent at renewal, which is why tenants nearing the end of their term are advised to understand the applicable percentage limit well before negotiations start.