The Dream of Every Employee: Becoming a Building Owner... Visit Before You Break Ground

Devoted 20 Years to Solving Construction Market Issues
Connecting Owners, Architects, and Builders
Interview with Lee Seung-gi, CEO of HowBuild

Lee Seung-gi, CEO of HowBuild

The saying "Building a single building ages you by 10 years" vividly reflects the difficulties faced by individual building owners. The joy of seeing the dream of constructing their own building come true is short-lived; once the first shovel hits the ground, they immediately encounter the chronic problems of the construction market. Design blueprints are inaccurate, and estimates frequently change. Depending on which materials are used, payment terms, and the construction deadline, costs often balloon far beyond the initial plan. It is common for the dream site to turn into a space of disputes. Construction IT platform HowBuild was established in 2003 to solve this problem. For nearly 20 years, it has focused solely on the goal of transforming construction. Even the market, which was slow to change, is now evolving. We spoke with Lee Seung-gi, CEO of HowBuild, about the journey so far.

CEO Lee said, "Construction companies try to use cheap materials for profit, while building owners insist on good materials since it's their building. Conflicts arise because decisions that should be made before the contract are made after the contract." He added, "HowBuild has systematized all processes to prevent this." HowBuild connects architects and construction companies through a bidding system so that individual building owners, who lack architectural knowledge, can competitively build their buildings. It also provides services to manage the design and construction process online. It connects building owners, architects, and construction companies and manages the project until completion.

For example, when planning to build a building, one needs to know how much the construction will cost and how much revenue can be generated from rent. HowBuild participates from this planning stage. After profitability analysis, if the decision is made to build, the design is entrusted to an architect. CEO Lee said, "Through the system, you can receive multiple design proposals and select an architect." He added, "Once the design phase is complete, a public competitive bidding is held. Among about 10,000 companies holding domestic architectural licenses, 3,000 are HowBuild members." After selecting a company and starting construction, it is necessary to monitor whether the construction is carried out according to the contract. CEO Lee explained, "The advantage of HowBuild is that construction can proceed according to the planned design," and "Cost increases after the construction contract are almost nonexistent except in unavoidable cases."

This system is possible because accurate data is used to produce design plans that specify which materials to use and how the construction will proceed. Previously, many projects started with only rough estimates per square meter based on incomplete information in the design plans. Disputes arise here. Building owners try to include everything they dreamed of, which easily increases costs and causes conflicts. HowBuild prevents these disputes in advance. From the construction company's perspective, they can receive construction payments stably according to the contract. The number of construction companies participating in bids per construction site increased by 1.5 times compared to last year. CEO Lee said, "By setting rules in advance, we reduce disputes and create a profit-making structure," adding, "Construction companies also prefer projects through HowBuild."

However, HowBuild faced many challenges before establishing itself in the market. After introducing the public competitive bidding system in 2003, CEO Lee endured threatening phone calls for six months because construction costs had never been disclosed before. In the first year, 2003, not a single project was completed. Currently, the number of projects has increased to about 100 annually, with construction amounts ranging from 150 billion to 200 billion KRW per year conducted through HowBuild.

Having started the company to solve problems encountered while working as a site engineer, CEO Lee now aims to create a fundamental solution. HowBuild has accumulated data from 1,000 construction sites. It organizes which materials were used according to the design, the specifications and prices of each material item, the number of workers involved in each process, and the construction period. He emphasized, "We will data-ize so that even inaccurate blueprints can be used to estimate and proceed with construction," adding, "Once data-ized, management itself becomes more efficient, and construction companies can increase their profits."

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