Seoul City Detects 877 Cases of Illegal Use Change in Commercial-Residential Villas... "Be Cautious When Purchasing Buildings"

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 30th that it has identified 877 cases of neighborhood living facilities villas that were illegally converted in various autonomous districts and imposed a total of 6.27 billion KRW in enforcement fines. It also emphasized the need for citizens to exercise special caution to avoid purchasing or selling buildings suspected to be neighborhood living villas.

Neighborhood living villas are practically impossible to convert into residential use due to various issues such as parking and floor restrictions. According to the current Seoul city standards for installing auxiliary parking lots, neighborhood living facilities require one parking space per 134㎡ of facility area, whereas multi-family and apartment housing require at least 0.5 parking spaces per unit area, making conversion to residential use difficult.

To establish a proper architectural culture, Seoul established the "2021 Violations Building Investigation and Maintenance Plan" and notified each autonomous district. Through continuous guidance and inspections, administrative actions against violating buildings are being strengthened. If a building is caught violating regulations, the actual buyer may face enforcement fines and administrative actions such as prosecution, so caution is necessary.

Kim Seongbo, head of the Housing and Architecture Headquarters of Seoul, stated, "There have been cases where buildings permitted as neighborhood living facilities were remodeled into residences and sold. We hope citizens pay attention to preventing damage by verifying building registers and other documents to avoid purchasing illegal buildings."

The building register displays information about the building’s location, area, structure, use, number of floors, and other details, allowing verification of the building’s designated use.

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