SH Corporation Implements 'One-Strike Out' Policy for Speculative Employees... Expands Supply of Half-Price Apartments

Seoul City and SH Corporation's 5 Major Innovation Plans... Stronger Anti-Corruption Measures than LH Activated

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) has decided to introduce a one-strike-out policy for detecting speculative activities. The supply of public housing for non-homeowners, such as land leasehold sale housing, commonly known as 'half-price apartments,' will also be intensified.

On the 9th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and SH announced the 'SH Corporation's Five Major Innovation Plans' based on these points. The five innovation plans include △ Establishing a ‘Comprehensive Housing Welfare Center’ as a housing welfare problem solver for Seoul citizens, with one center per autonomous district △ Organizational reform to secure driving force for core projects and enhance transparency △ Expanding opportunities for home ownership by introducing new housing supply models △ Comprehensive reform of public housing quality management focusing on residents △ Expanding public housing information disclosure to improve transparency and citizen convenience. SH has been preparing these innovation plans since August by forming the Corporation Innovation Promotion Team.

First, SH will operate stronger anti-corruption measures than LH to prevent speculation and corruption from taking root. A monitoring system will be established to pre-check whether all employees are involved when land acquisition compensation is made, and if speculative activities are detected, a 'one-strike-out policy' will be introduced to impose strict penalties. Additionally, unfair profits will be recovered, and fines up to five times the amount of unfair profits will be imposed.

By introducing new housing models, opportunities for citizens to own homes will also be expanded. Affordable public housing such as land leasehold sale housing, known as half-price apartments, and equity accumulation sale housing will be supplied. Land leasehold sale housing is a method where the land is owned by the developer such as SH Corporation, and only the building is sold. Since the land price, which accounts for a significant portion of apartment costs, is excluded, the sale price can be as low as half the usual price. Equity accumulation sale housing requires residents to pay a portion (20-25%) of the land or building equity at move-in and gradually purchase the remaining equity over 20-30 years. This reduces the financial burden on non-homeowner real demanders who have income but insufficient assets.

To increase predictability of move-in timing, a pre-reservation system (public sale) will be newly introduced next year, and the preliminary resident (public housing) system will also be expanded. The term ‘rental housing’ will be changed to a new name reflecting new concepts and philosophies through a public contest. Furthermore, starting with Hagye 5 Complex, the first permanent rental complex built in 1989, 34 aging public housing complexes will be gradually reconstructed into homes where anyone would want to live.

Public housing information disclosure will also be expanded by increasing the number of disclosed sale cost items from 61 to 71, and the sale costs of complexes started within the past 10 years will be sequentially disclosed by next year. A service providing comprehensive public housing resident information, such as average maintenance fees and preliminary resident waiting status, similar to private apartments, will also be launched.

Comprehensive Housing Welfare Centers will be established in all 25 autonomous districts to create a one-center-per-district system. These centers will serve as regional hubs strengthening the public housing safety net and acting as housing welfare problem solvers for Seoul citizens. The Comprehensive Housing Welfare Centers will integrate housing welfare-related services previously provided by 13 existing SH regional centers, housing welfare centers, visiting community service centers, and youth monthly rent support counseling centers. Through this, SH explained that fragmented housing welfare services such as youth monthly rent, emergency housing support, and housing upgrade projects can be accessed in a one-stop manner.

SH will also revise relocation restriction regulations to allow public housing residents who need to move due to childbirth, job change, etc., to relocate to their desired housing size and area. Additionally, an income-linked usage fee system considering residents’ housing cost burden capacity will be introduced.

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