Additional 70,000 Housing Sites Secured in Downtown Seoul

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] The government will secure an additional 70,000 housing sites in central Seoul, including Yongsan Maintenance Depot and Yongsan Retention Basin, by 2022.

In the new towns of the metropolitan area with 300,000 households, the government will revive the 'pre-subscription' system used during the previous public housing supply and start pre-subscription for 9,000 households from next year, accelerating housing supply measures in the metropolitan area.

On the 6th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the ‘Measures to Strengthen the Housing Supply Base in the Metropolitan Area’ to establish a long-term housing supply foundation and further stabilize the market. According to this strengthening plan, sites capable of supplying an additional 70,000 households in Seoul will be secured by 2022, enabling an average annual housing supply of ‘250,000 households + α’ in Seoul and the metropolitan area from 2023 onward.

Park Sun-ho, the first vice minister of MOLIT, said, “It is necessary to dispel concerns about housing supply contraction due to the recent spread of COVID-19 and the global economic downturn and prepare for increased housing demand when the economy recovers.”

First, 40,000 households will be supplied through revitalizing redevelopment projects with enhanced public nature, including 20,000 households from public development activation, 12,000 households from supplementing small-scale maintenance projects, and 8,000 households from revitalizing private housing projects in station areas.

Regarding the activation of public redevelopment, the government will participate in redevelopment projects that have been stagnant for a long time due to union conflicts and lack of profitability to expedite the projects. When the public participates, uncertainties such as guaranteeing union members’ contributions, covering shortfalls, providing low-interest loans, and easing zoning upgrades and donation requirements will be eliminated. Public rental housing and profit-sharing jeonse housing with high public nature will be supplied, and the project period will be shortened from the previous 10 years to within 5 years.

Small-scale maintenance projects will see relaxed floor area ratio and parking installation obligations. For small-scale reconstruction, if zoning upgrades are possible, the floor limit will be eased from 7 to 15 floors. Fifty percent of the increased floor area ratio will be donated as public rental housing.

To revitalize private housing projects in station areas, the station area range will be temporarily expanded from 250m to 350m, and the zoning of projects establishing urban plans will be upgraded. When zoning is upgraded, half of the increased floor area ratio will be supplied as public rental housing.

An additional 15,000 households will be secured through the maintenance and reuse of idle spaces such as semi-industrial areas in central Seoul. Semi-industrial areas will be developed into mixed residential and industrial facilities on large-scale factory relocation sites through joint public-private contests involving MOLIT, Seoul City, and others. Semi-industrial areas in Seoul account for 19.98㎢, or 3.3% of the total area of Seoul. MOLIT, Seoul City, LH, and SH plan to secure one or two pilot project sites by the second half of this year through joint contests.

To this end, the mandatory securing of 50% industrial land in construction projects in semi-industrial areas will be temporarily relaxed to 40% for three years only for joint public-private projects. In addition, LH and SH will actively purchase vacant offices and commercial buildings and convert them into long-term public rental housing for single-person households.

Fifteen thousand households will be secured by utilizing various idle urban sites such as national and public lands, public institution-owned sites, and public facility complexes. National and public lands such as the Jung-gu government office site in Seoul (500 households), Heukseok-dong retention basin (210 households), and Naval Welfare Complex (110 households) will be developed into mixed-use public housing with cultural and sports facilities.

Idle railway lands will be used to develop mixed-use complexes with office, commercial, and resident convenience facilities in prime station areas. Developments include Yongsan Maintenance Depot (8,000 households) and Oryu-dong Station (360 households).

Public facilities and public housing will be constructed through public contributions from zoning changes of private lands such as SpoWorld in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul (185 households) and Cowon Energy in Daechi-dong (149 households).

Furthermore, MOLIT plans to expedite the existing metropolitan supply plan. Of the 770,000 apartments to be supplied on public land in the metropolitan area, more than 50% will start recruiting residents by 2023. Some will be sold early through the pre-subscription system. The pre-subscription system selects residents one to two years before the main subscription and was previously implemented in the public housing project.

Previously, the government prepared a plan to supply 300,000 households in the metropolitan area according to the Housing Welfare Roadmap. The government will apply a fast track to the already secured 300,000 public land sites in the metropolitan area and start recruiting residents from the end of 2021 for excellent sites.

An MOLIT official said, “With this supply plan, it has become possible to supply ‘250,000 households + α’ annually in the metropolitan area from 2023 onward. The estimated new housing demand in the metropolitan area is about 220,000 households per year, and this supply plan will provide more than 30,000 households annually beyond actual demand.”

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