Old Detached Houses in Junghwa-dong and Bulgwang-dong Get a New Life

Seoul Urban Regeneration Committee Conditionally Approves 3 Autonomous Housing Maintenance Projects

Aerial View of the Area Around 442 Bulgwang-dong

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] Three aging single-family housing areas, including Junghwa-dong in Jungnang-gu, are promoting a resident-led 'Autonomous Housing Maintenance Project.'

On the 21st, Seoul City announced that the Urban Regeneration Committee held on the 20th conditionally approved the implementation plans for the Autonomous Housing Maintenance Project in three areas: 312 Junghwa-dong, Jungnang-gu; 442 Bulgwang-dong, Eunpyeong-gu; and 480 Bulgwang-dong, Eunpyeong-gu.

The Autonomous Housing Maintenance Project is a project under the "Special Act on the Maintenance of Vacant Houses and Small-scale Housing," where owners of aging single-family and multi-family (row) houses form a resident consensus group through unanimous agreement and improve or construct houses by themselves. The target project units are single-family houses with fewer than 10 households or multi-family houses with fewer than 20 households, and it is possible if more than two-thirds of the total buildings are old and deteriorated. In the Autonomous Housing Maintenance Project zones, residents can build structures by treating adjacent lots as a single lot through building agreements, and party-wall construction is also allowed.

In particular, the two project zones in Bulgwang-dong are jointly implemented by the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH Corporation) and residents, securing public rental housing through this. A Seoul city official explained, "Through the Autonomous Housing Maintenance Project, more than 20% of the total floor area is planned as rental housing, allowing the floor area ratio to be relaxed up to the legal maximum."

Kang Maeng-hoon, Director of Urban Regeneration at Seoul City, said, "We will continue to improve systems and provide administrative support to activate small-scale housing maintenance projects, including autonomous housing."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.