Abandoned Semi-Basement House, Let's Transform It into an Urban Warehouse

A semi-basement in a building in a certain part of Seoul. The space that had been abandoned and had fallen into ruin after a long time without anyone living in the unseemly building has recently been transformed into a neat personal storage for keeping personal belongings.

The company that made this possible is ‘Mini Storage Attic’, operated by Second Syndrome. In fact, Second Syndrome received praise last year for converting four semi-basement housing units in Seoul into attics in collaboration with the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH).

The CEO of Second Syndrome, Hong Woo-tae (photo), stated in an interview with Maeil Business News, "Semi-basements present several limitations, such as humidity, ventilation, safety, and psychological aversion, so we examined structural safety, waterproof status, condensation potential, ventilation conditions, and only selected spaces that could meet the storage environment criteria for our operations."

Founded in 2015, Second Syndrome is a lifestyle infrastructure company that provides 'flexible space options' in underutilized urban facilities. It’s a concept like 'offline cloud storage.' It offers an urban space subscription service that integrates contactless access through a mobile application (app), 24-hour access, temperature and humidity management, security systems, insurance, and damage compensation systems.

CEO Hong said, "Many people's dream is 'home ownership,' but for most, the burden of housing costs continues to rise each year, let alone owning a home." He added, "I started this business thinking that if there were separate space options beyond a home, it could significantly increase residential satisfaction."

At the time of establishment, self-storage services in Korea were not legally or institutionally defined. Interpretations varied from one local government to another, resulting in some regions allowing operations while restrictions occurred in others, making the industry itself unstable.

In 2023, Second Syndrome became the first in Korea to receive designation as an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) regulatory sandbox, establishing a foundation for self-storage operations, and proved its growth potential and necessity over two years.

Last August, the efforts finally bore fruit. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport amended the building law enforcement ordinance to establish a new designation for 'shared storage facilities' within neighborhood living facilities. CEO Hong noted, "Since the regulatory improvement, local governments, building owners, financial firms, and investors have all recognized this industry as an infrastructure industry, and since then, the overall speed of market growth has clearly accelerated."

The distinguishing feature of the attic is that it maximizes user convenience and safety. Users can use their cloud space 24 hours a day without going through a manager, and the temperature and humidity are uniformly managed during sleeping hours. If it is difficult to visit the offline space, users can send or receive items from home through logistics services.

Design criteria were established based on real risks such as leaks, condensation, fire, and security, and a preventive-based operational process was created. Insurance and internal compensation systems have also been put in place to prepare for accidents.

Furthermore, in line with the age of artificial intelligence (AI), an operational system was created that connects temperature and humidity, access records, and abnormal signs of each location to the data based on AI technology to prevent accidents.

CEO Hong remarked, "Thanks to AI technology, the attic can maintain space quality stably 24 hours a day even without an on-site operator, and customers can freely use it anytime through a mobile app."

The accumulated number of attic members has reached 97,000. Recently, as the number of sole proprietors and side businesses has increased, the usage proportion of corporate businesses, small business owners, and individual entrepreneurs has also been rising.

Thanks to these efforts, they have attracted an accumulated investment of 17 billion KRW, and revenue is expected to be around 15 billion KRW in 2025. They aim for listing on the KOSDAQ market by 2028.

[Lee Ho-joon, Reporter]

Lee Ho-joon, reporter (lee.hojoon@mk.co.kr)