An officetel is one of the subcategories of office facilities under the Building Act. Annex Table 1 of the Enforcement Decree of the Building Act classifies office facilities into public office facilities and general office facilities, and officetels fall under general office facilities. The definition of an officetel is as follows:
Officetel: A building that is used primarily for business purposes and is designed so that lodging and meals are possible in some of the subdivided units that are sold or leased, and that complies with the standards prescribed and publicly notified by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The officetel building standards publicly notified by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport set forth the following requirements for officetels:
- An officetel must have a structure that meets each of the following requirements:
- When an officetel is constructed as part of a mixed-use building (excluding buildings with a total gross floor area of 3,000 square meters or less above ground), a dedicated entrance exclusively for the officetel must be installed. However, when an officetel is constructed together with a single-family house or multi-family housing, the building owner may choose not to install a dedicated entrance, taking residential functions into consideration.
- The method for calculating the exclusive use area shall be based on the area measured along the inner line of the exterior walls of the building. From this area, common areas jointly used by two or more units that fall under any of the following items shall be excluded. Any remaining exterior wall area after subtracting the exclusive use area from the floor area shall be added to the common area:
- Common areas located on above-ground floors of the officetel, such as corridors, staircases, and entrance halls
- Other common areas, including basements and management offices, excluding the common areas listed in item above
- Facilities that support the daily living of officetel residents, such as senior centers and daycare centers, may be installed as ancillary facilities within an officetel.
- For residential lodging properties for which an initial application for building approval was submitted on or before October 16, 2024 (including cases where an application for review was submitted to the Building Committee pursuant to Article 4 of the Building Act for the purpose of applying for building approval), when approval or notification items are changed to convert the use to an officetel pursuant to Article 16(1) of the Building Act, or when the use is converted to an officetel pursuant to Article 19(2) of the same Act, the requirements under items 2 and 4 of paragraph (1) may be exempted. In such cases, this fact must be recorded in the “Other Matters” section of the building register in accordance with Article 7 of the Rules on the Recording and Management of the Building Register.
- In addition, officetels must comply with the following requirements to ensure evacuation in the event of fire or similar emergencies:
- For officetels of 16 stories or more in which the main structural components are of fire-resistant construction or non-combustible materials, for floors at or above the 16th floor, direct staircases leading from non-evacuation floors to an evacuation floor or to the ground must be installed so that the walking distance from any part of the living space to the staircase does not exceed 40 meters.
- The boundary walls between individual office units must be of fire-resistant construction and must either meet or exceed the wall thickness prescribed in Article 19(2) of the Rules on Standards for Evacuation and Fire-Protection Structures of Buildings, or secure sound insulation performance of at least 45 dB.
Meanwhile, under the Housing Act, dormitories, multi-living facilities, elderly welfare housing, and officetels are separately classified as quasi-housing. The Housing Act also includes single-family houses, multi-family housing, and quasi-housing within the scope of private rental housing. Accordingly, officetels classified as quasi-housing may be registered and operated as a residential building rental business, even though they are classified as business facilities under the Building Act.
