A Home Is A (Luxurious) Castle

Social changes tend to come fast and furious in South Korea.  A new one comes with singles deciding to spend money on their apartment and enjoying singledom rather than saving for a (married) future:

"'People like Hwang see their home a bit differently from what people living with other family members think of as home -- a communal place for family or a means of financial gain, according to a survey conducted by Macromill Embrain. Those who live alone said home is a place for themselves when the company did a survey on the meaning of home and home interior in 2016. 

It gets easier to decorate one’s home after people turn 40, as their income increases and their home tends to be as big as 128 square meters. 

'The tendency to spend for themselves without thinking too much about what others think is now expressed in a place we call home,' said Lee Hyang-eun, professor of service design engineering at Sungshin Women’s University."

Entertaining non-family members at home, even close friends, is pretty rare in South Korea.  And frankly, with so many restaurants and coffee shops on every block, it's hard to know if this trend will have staying power.