"Accelerating Public Redevelopment"... Switching from Annual Public Offering to Rolling Applications

The Seoul Metropolitan Government's public redevelopment project will shift from an annual open call to a rolling application system. Following last month's change to a rolling system for the 'Rapid Integrated Planning' redevelopment project initiated by Mayor Oh Se-hoon, this move appears aimed at accelerating housing supply in aging residential areas.

The area around Ahyeon-dong, Mapo-gu, a candidate site for public redevelopment in Seoul.
Photo by Moon Honam

On the 19th, Seoul announced that it will improve the method of selecting public redevelopment candidate sites, which had been conducted once a year through open calls, to a 'rolling application and selection' system starting this year. The rolling application system will be implemented from this month, where residents can apply to their district offices, which will conduct preliminary reviews before recommending candidate sites to the Seoul city government. The selection committee, which meets monthly, will review and decide on the selections.

The public redevelopment project is a program in which public entities such as SH and LH corporations participate in redevelopment projects to improve deteriorated residential environments and promote stalled redevelopment projects, supplying housing through various incentives and support. Since 2021, Seoul has collaborated with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to select 32 public redevelopment candidate sites through open calls and is currently proceeding with the initiation procedures for designating redevelopment zones.

Going forward, for public redevelopment, residents in areas wishing to undertake the project who obtain consent from more than 30% of residents can apply to their district office at any time. The district office will conduct a preliminary review and hold a residents' briefing session on the preliminary plan. The city will hold a selection committee meeting on the third Thursday of every month to select candidate sites from the recommended locations. The procedures and forms from application to selection of public redevelopment candidate sites will follow those used for private redevelopment candidate site selection plans.

Meanwhile, to prevent speculative forces from entering public redevelopment candidate sites, Seoul will maintain the existing 'rights assessment reference date (January 28, 2022)' for candidate site selection this year. However, from next year onward, the rights assessment reference date for candidate site selection will, in principle, be the district office's 'candidate site recommendation date.' If the district mayor requests a separate date prior to the 'candidate site recommendation date,' that requested date will be used as the rights assessment reference date. Additionally, as with previous open calls, strong anti-speculation measures such as restrictions on building permits and land transaction permits will be applied to areas recommended as candidate sites by district offices.

Han Byung-yong, Director of the Seoul Housing Policy Office, said, "As the public redevelopment project is now on track, we will continue close consultations with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to promptly designate redevelopment zones and provide public support for already selected areas," adding, "Through reasonable procedural improvements, we will strive to ensure that projects can be carried out quickly and smoothly in areas where improvement of aging residential environments is needed."

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