The price-to-income ratio of “jeonse” rental deposits reached 6-to-1 in Seoul from 2004 to hit a decade high, according to data from Statistics Korea.

The PIR of rental deposits is a ratio of median house rental prices to annual average household income.

The latest numbers indicate that to pay a rental deposit in Seoul, households must spend up to six times their annual income.

The data was based on the rental deposit prices of 8.9 million households as of last month, and the average nationwide household income for the second half of this year.

The figure has been steadily increasing over the past decade as rental deposits grew faster than household income.

The cost of average rental deposits in Seoul doubled to 326 million won ($312,500) this year from 2004.

Median household income in the same period increased by 1.5 times.