"Too Long, Really Too Long"... Seoul City Holds Apartment Name Forum with Associations and Construction Companies

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is discussing 'beautiful and easy-to-pronounce apartment names' with associations, construction companies, and others. Following last year's forum with citizens and experts, a meeting has been arranged to communicate directly with industry workers who are directly involved in naming apartments.

On the 20th at 2 p.m., Seoul announced that it will hold the '2nd Public Forum on Apartment Naming' at the Welfare Building of the Seosomun Office in Seoul City Hall, gathering heads of reconstruction and redevelopment associations, licensed real estate agents, and other related industry workers. Any interested citizen can participate.

Among apartments nationwide, the longest name belongs to 'Gwangju Jeonnam Joint Innovation City Bitgaram Daebang Elyium Royal County Phase 1 (Phase 2)' in Naju, Jeollanam-do, totaling 25 characters.

In Dongtan, the apartment named 'Dongtan Sibeom Daeun Village World Meridian Bando Ubora' also has a long name with 19 characters.

In Seoul, the new name of the former Gaepo Jugong Complex 1 was given as 'The H Firstier I-Park,' which is 12 characters long. Since Hyundai Development Company and Hyundai Construction jointly built it, the brands of both companies (Hyundai Development Company I-Park, Hyundai Construction The H) are included, making the name longer.

There is also a naming formula for apartments: if near a park, add 'Parkview'; if there is a forest, add 'Fore'; if the school district is good or there are many academies, add 'Edu'; if there is a four-lane or wider main road nearby, add 'Central.'

The apartment names are so difficult to pronounce and memorize that there is a joke saying, "My mother-in-law gets confused and can't find the place."

At this forum, the city plans to hear opinions from associations, constructors, and others in the industry about the process of 'apartment naming' on-site. They will also discuss how apartment names affect economic value.

Additionally, the forum will continue discussions on topics covered in the first forum, such as 'autonomy in apartment naming' and 'securing public use of apartment names containing regional names,' and will also provide time for attendees to ask questions or express opinions.

The city plans to use the opinions gathered at this forum as data to implement future policies related to apartment naming.

Han Byung-yong, Director of Housing Policy at Seoul City, said, "While the autonomy and diversity of apartment names should be respected, this forum was organized out of a 'sense of problem' regarding whether unfamiliar foreign words, foreign languages, or excessively long names harm the Korean language and cause inconvenience in daily life." He added, "We hope to create a social consensus and atmosphere that strives to incorporate beautiful and easy-to-pronounce native Korean place names and Hangul into apartment names."

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