Seoul City, Conditional Floor Area Ratio Relaxation for Apartment Remodeling... Basic Plan Revision

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 3rd that it has prepared a revised version of the "2025 Seoul Apartment Remodeling Basic Plan," which includes provisions for floor area ratio (FAR) relaxation.

This revision comes five years after the initial establishment of the basic plan in 2016, reflecting changes in social and institutional conditions to reassess the validity of the basic plan and develop improvement measures.

The revision includes, for the first time, the establishment of the "Seoul-style Apartment Remodeling Operation Standards." The core idea is to provide FAR incentives when infrastructure is improved or community-friendly facilities are installed. A Seoul city official explained, "This is a measure to secure the public nature of remodeling projects and prevent indiscriminate development."

Under the Housing Act, remodeling allows for an extension of 30-40% of the exclusive residential area, and FAR relaxation is also possible under the Building Act. However, there had been no specific standards for FAR relaxation, and it was only applied through internal guidelines. This time, the standards have been set and incorporated into the basic plan.

Going forward, according to these standards, FAR can be relaxed in cases such as ▲improving infrastructure like roads and parks (up to 20 percentage points), ▲creating green buildings (up to 20 percentage points), ▲installing community-friendly facilities such as open playgrounds and shared parking spaces (up to 30 percentage points), and ▲activating streets with commercial facilities (up to 10 percentage points).

The city is also planning to support project costs. It will pursue amendments to relevant laws to allow support through maintenance funds and develop financial products such as loans for association operating expenses and construction costs. Although remodeling is a project to improve the environment of aging residential areas similar to maintenance projects, there is currently no system to support project costs.

The city plans to conduct a public inspection of the revision from the 4th to the 19th of this month, followed by gathering opinions from the city council and review by the Urban Planning Committee, with a final announcement scheduled for January next year.

Meanwhile, apartment remodeling can be promoted with residents' consent in buildings that have been completed for more than 15 years. Compared to reconstruction, which can only be promoted after 30 years post-completion, the procedure is relatively simpler.

According to a full survey of 4,217 apartment complexes in the city, the city estimates that 3,096 complexes are eligible for remodeling, with 898 complexes classified as "unit-increasing type" through horizontal or vertical extensions. The rest can undergo customized remodeling to improve residential environments such as equipment and repairs. The number of complexes eligible for reconstruction is estimated at 878.

Kim Seongbo, Director of the Seoul Housing Policy Office, said, "This revision was prepared from a long-term perspective to improve the residential environment of aging apartments. We will support apartments that wish to remodel to smoothly carry out their projects while securing public interests."

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