Seoul's 'Apartment District' Enters History... Reconstruction Becomes More Flexible

Seoul City Converts Apartment Districts to District Unit Plans
More Flexible Application of Floor Area Ratio, Height, and Usage Possible

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] The 'Apartment District' system, introduced in the 1970s to rapidly supply apartments, is disappearing into history.

On the 9th, Seoul City announced that it has improved guidelines to allow more flexible application of floor area ratio, height, and usage when converting apartment districts into district unit plans. Previously, the city had prepared guidelines to sequentially convert apartment districts into district unit plans.

Currently, there are a total of 14 apartment districts within Seoul. They cover a total area of 11.2㎢, including 208 complexes and a total of 149,684 households, accounting for about 9% of all apartments in Seoul.

The apartment district system was established in 1976 to build large-scale apartments to accommodate the rapidly increasing population of Seoul. However, since the system focused on building apartments, the land use classification was rigid, and over time, it has been criticized for failing to accommodate diverse residential needs. For example, commercial buildings or pedestrian paths are prohibited on residential land parcels.

Subsequently, apartment districts were removed from the National Land Planning Act in 2003, and Seoul City has operated the 14 existing districts under the Housing Act's supplementary provisions. Since 2017, to respond to changing times and systems, the city established a plan to convert them into district unit plans, a comprehensive urban management system, and has been implementing this since last year. This time, the system has been further improved with deregulation to actively expand housing supply and revitalize reconstruction.

With this guideline improvement, when establishing a maintenance plan during the reconstruction process within apartment districts, the urban management plan part will be converted into a district unit plan, allowing more flexible application of floor area ratio, height, and usage.

First, all land under the basic development plan will be converted into blocks. Residential land targeted for reconstruction will be designated as special planning zones, presenting proactive reconstruction guidelines at the district level to enable rapid establishment of maintenance plans. The mandatory 15% public contribution regulation uniformly applied to residential land along the Han River will also be flexibly operated considering the status of surrounding infrastructure.

Conversion to residential use will be allowed on existing central facility land, with the maximum height relaxed to 40m in principle but applied flexibly considering location characteristics. Previously, only commercial functions were allowed on central facility land, residential use was prohibited, and height was limited to five floors or less. A Seoul City official explained, "Considering that about 30% of the current central facility land is located in station areas, the system was improved to promote future station area complex development."

'Development residual land,' which remains only in some apartment districts, will also be allowed mixed non-residential and residential use, with the maximum height permitted up to 40m. Currently, there are 91 parcels of development residual land remaining in five districts in Seoul (Banpo, Seobinggo, Cheongdam Dogok, Ichon, Apgujeong). Additionally, the city decided to apply the same standards as existing residential land when central facility land and development residual land are integrated with nearby residential complexes for reconstruction or developed on a certain scale (5,000㎡ or 100 households) or more.

To prevent overlapping issues between apartment districts and urban management plans in the future, the city plans to announce the abolition of apartment districts at the time of deciding district unit plans for each apartment district.

Yoo Chang-soo, Director of Seoul City's Housing Policy Office, said, "We expect that reconstruction projects in the 14 apartment districts in Seoul will be carried out efficiently and flexibly," adding, "Through guideline improvements and deregulation, we will expand housing supply and establish a sustainable and consistent urban management system for apartment-dense areas."

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