Where Are the 180,000 New Housing Sites in the Seoul Metropolitan Area... Gwangmyeong and Hanam in Consideration

Goyang Hwajeon-dong and Gimpo Gochon-eup Also
Strong Candidates for 2·4 Supply Plan Sites
Sequential Announcements Expected in First Half of This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Gang-wook] As the government announced plans to designate new housing sites totaling about 263,000 households through the February 4th supply measures, market attention is focusing on the candidates for these new sites. Although the total supply volume in this plan reaches 830,000 households, the only confirmed supply is land supply. In particular, the leading candidates in the Seoul metropolitan area, which accounts for most of the 180,000 households, include Gwangmyeong-Siheung district and Hanam Gambuk, which are frequently mentioned whenever new towns are announced. The government plans to announce additional new housing sites two or three times in the first half of this year.

According to the government and related industries on the 5th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is currently negotiating with local governments to finalize new public housing sites. The timing of the additional announcement has not been decided. However, since some negotiations have practically been completed, there is a possibility that some candidate sites may be announced as early as March.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Byeon Chang-heum said, "The locations are almost finalized, but there are still matters to be discussed with local governments before detailed announcements," adding, "We plan to announce newly developed housing sites two to three times during the first half of the year."

Market interest is concentrated on new housing sites in the Seoul metropolitan area. Since there is no land supply volume in the Seoul area in this announcement, the top priority candidates are expected to be areas near Seoul or with good accessibility to Seoul, focusing on places with excellent transportation and development conditions. The supply scale through new site designation is 180,000 households, which requires land equivalent to twice the size of Bundang New Town (97,600 households), the first-generation new town.

The areas mentioned by the industry as candidates are greenbelt areas with low preservation value and regions densely populated with low-rise old houses. Leading candidates include the Gwangmyeong-Siheung district. The Gwangmyeong-Siheung district was designated in 2010 as a housing site for 95,000 households over 17.36 million square meters in Gwangmyeong-dong, Gwangmyeong City, and Garim-dong, Siheung City, but faced difficulties due to resident opposition and was deregulated in 2015, then designated as a special management zone. These two areas have excellent access to the southwestern part of Seoul and have a land area close to Bundang New Town (19.6 million square meters), offering the advantage of supplying more than 90,000 households. Although excluded from the final list of the third-generation new towns in 2019, they were considered candidates for these reasons.

Hanam Gambuk district, which was previously designated as a housing site, is also considered a potential candidate. Gambuk district is a land development district covering 2.67 million square meters in Gambuk-dong, Gamil-dong, Gwangam-dong, and Choi-dong, Hanam City, Gyeonggi Province. It is highly attractive due to its proximity to Songpa-gu, Seoul.

Besides the previously mentioned areas, the possibility of a surprise designation of completely different regions cannot be ruled out. Areas such as Hwajeon-dong in Deogyang-gu, Goyang City, and Gochon-eup in Gimpo City are considered possible candidates for housing site designation due to recent transportation network developments. Other areas mentioned as new town candidates include Maesong and Bibong in Hwaseong, Gongseri in Yongin, and Juam-dong in Gwacheon.

These new town candidates are concentrated more in the southeastern part than the northwestern part of the Seoul metropolitan area. According to the Seoul metropolitan area planning law, there are no restrictions such as military facility protection zones, and there is high housing demand nearby. The areas are also large, exceeding 3.3 million square meters. The government is reportedly considering candidates based on public transportation convenience, such as the Seoul Metropolitan Area Express Train (GTX) and subway lines, as well as accessibility to Seoul.

Some critics argue that the government is only focused on the title of the "largest-ever supply" and is presenting only the big picture without specifying concrete supply sites, which only increases market uncertainty.

An industry official who requested anonymity said, "The government has only expressed its intention to expand supply, but there are no detailed implementation plans, so it is questionable whether it can be realized," adding, "It seems the government hastily mobilized even new housing sites by 'yeongkkeul' (meaning pulling out all the stops, even the soul) to meet the supply target."

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