Kyungrye Seon: "85% of Public Housing Supplied by Moon Government Is Not Related to Housing Stability"

Among 328,000 New Public Housing Units, Only 15% Are Permanent, 50-Year, or National Rentals
Government Rebuts Claim That Public Rentals Stable for Over 10 Years Are Fake

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) claimed that most of the public housing increased during the Moon Jae-in administration is not related to long-term housing stability for low-income households.

At a press conference held on the 25th, CCEJ stated, "The government says that the stock of long-term public housing increased by 328,000 units from the end of 2016 to the end of 2019, but 85% of these are jeonse rental housing, so the actual proportion of genuine public housing is very low."

CCEJ classified the public rental housing stock disclosed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) by type and analyzed it by administration. The data utilized MOLIT statistics, the Housing Business Manual, and MOLIT responses obtained through information disclosure requests.

According to CCEJ, the public housing stock increased from 1,256,000 units at the end of 2016 to 1,584,000 units at the end of 2019, an increase of 328,000 units. CCEJ did not recognize Happy Housing, purchased rental housing, 10-year sale conversion, and jeonse rental as public housing, arguing that they do not help with long-term housing stability for low-income households.

They labeled purchased rental housing and Happy Housing as "fake public housing," and 10-year sale conversion and jeonse rental as "pseudo public housing." Regarding jeonse rental, they pointed out that local governments only enter into jeonse contracts for housing occupied by low-income households and re-rent them at low prices, but the public sector does not hold these properties long-term.

CCEJ classified only permanent, 50-year, national rental, and long-term jeonse housing as "genuine public housing." Among the 328,000 public housing units increased over the past three years, only 15%, or 48,000 units, fell into this category.

For this reason, CCEJ criticized the MOLIT's announced long-term public housing stock rate of 7.4% as incorrect, stating that the actual number of public housing units available for long-term rental of 20 years or more is low when excluding jeonse rental and others.

By administration, the period with the highest supply of long-term public housing was the Lee Myung-bak administration with 300,000 units, and based on project approval criteria, the Roh Moo-hyun administration had the most with 470,000 national rental units.

CCEJ said, "The proportion of public housing in South Korea is very low compared to Singapore's 75% and Nordic countries' 33%," and criticized, "The current public housing policy cannot fulfill the role of a housing ladder at all."

They added, "The supply of purchased rental housing should be stopped, and public land should be directly developed and owned by the public sector to supply public housing through long-term leasing."

For example, in the case of purchased rental housing, the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) buys existing multi-family and multi-unit houses and re-rents them, but since these houses are already overpriced due to the housing price surge, this is seen as an unnecessary act that wastes the budget.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport rebutted CCEJ's claims in a clarification statement.

MOLIT explained, "Under the Public Housing Special Act, public rental housing includes not only permanent and national rental housing but also Happy Housing, sale conversion public rental, purchased rental, and jeonse rental housing," adding, "All these housing types allow stable residence for more than 10 years."

They further explained, "Happy Housing, jeonse rental, and purchased rental allow residence for up to 20 years, and especially in the case of jeonse rental, if the tenant chooses a preferred house, LH signs a jeonse contract with the landlord and re-rents it to the tenant. LH also takes responsibility for housing management, making it different from a simple deposit support product."

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