Abstract

Purpose: In South Korea, social mix refers to “the mixed-tenure housing complex policy”, designed to address residential segregation and social exclusion. Currently, the policy is implemented indirectly through administrative procedures, rather than through formal legislation. This study evaluates the effectiveness, sustainability of this policy, examines its legislative feasibility, and offers policy guidelines. Data and methodology: Employing data from the “4th-year Panel Survey of Public Rental Housing Residents in Seoul”, conducted by the Seoul Housing and Urban Development Corporation (SH), this study analyzed public rental housing residents, applying multiple regression and binary logistic regression models. Results: Residents’ attitudes toward the policy were negatively influenced by dwelling satisfaction, residential environment satisfaction, tenure type, housing size, rental deposit burden, and unmarried status, whereas their perceptions of economic class mixing were positively affected by dwelling satisfaction, residential environment satisfaction, mixed-tenure residency, rental deposit burden, and neighbor interactions. A significant moderation was observed in which the interaction between high dwelling satisfaction and mixed-tenure residency increased residents’ support for the policy, but simultaneously reduced their perceptions of class mixing. It implies that residents with higher housing quality and heavier deposit burdens tend to perceive themselves as an internal upper class, accepting class mixing in principle but revealing resistance in practice. Conclusion: Thsese results indicate that the physical mixing alone doesn not achieve social and psychological mixing, thereby necessitating complementary measures to enhance interaction among different socioeconomic groups.