Seoul City Activates 'Speculation Prevention Measures' for Redevelopment of Long-term Lease Housing Near Subway Stations

From now on, when constructing long-term lease housing near subway stations through redevelopment projects, the "public announcement date of the maintenance plan" will be set as the reference date for calculating rights. Additionally, any housing construction activities that alter the aging criteria within the project area will be subject to restriction procedures based on the "date the district office chief receives the prior review application."

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that starting from the 26th, it will implement strong anti-speculation measures to prevent speculative forces from entering the "long-term lease housing near subway stations urban maintenance-type redevelopment projects" conducted through the "redevelopment project method."

The long-term lease housing near subway stations construction projects are mainly promoted through two methods: ▲district unit plans and ▲maintenance plans. This measure is an anti-speculation response specifically for the "maintenance plan method," which is promoted based on the shares of landowners and others.

The city explained that as the "long-term lease housing near subway stations urban maintenance-type redevelopment projects" have recently become active, speculative forces aiming to increase pre-sale rights by splitting shares and the proliferation of newly built villas have entered the project areas, causing harm to original residents or innocent victims. Therefore, this measure has been activated to prevent such occurrences.

Seoul plans to first implement two of the "three major anti-speculation measures" commonly applied in housing redevelopment project sites: ▲separate designation of the reference date for rights calculation and ▲restriction on permitted activities. In housing redevelopment project sites, measures such as ▲designation of the reference date for rights calculation, ▲restriction on permitted activities, and ▲designation of land transaction permission zones are applied to prevent the influx of speculative forces.

First, the "reference date for rights calculation," which serves as the basis for calculating the rights that union members can receive in redevelopment and other maintenance projects under the "Urban and Residential Environment Maintenance Act," will be moved forward from the original "designation and announcement date of the maintenance zone" to the "public announcement date of the maintenance plan" to early block share splitting.

Through this, ▲parcel division (splitting a parcel of land larger than 90㎡, which is the standard for pre-sale, into multiple parcels), ▲conversion of single-family or multi-family houses into multi-unit houses, ▲separate acquisition of land and buildings, and ▲construction of multi-unit or apartment housing must be completed by the "day after the reference date for rights calculation" to acquire the right to pre-sale.

To prevent unnecessary construction activities aimed at acquiring pre-sale rights and changes in aging criteria due to new building construction, restriction procedures on development activities will be promoted based on the "date the district office chief receives the prior review application" according to the National Land Planning and Utilization Act. Constructing housing within the project area to obtain pre-sale rights not only affects the aging criteria within the project area, becoming an obstacle to redevelopment projects, but also causes damage related to pre-sale rights or makes project promotion difficult due to opposition from landowners without pre-sale rights.

The city will initiate procedures related to the announcement of activity restrictions on the date the autonomous district applies for prior review, restricting unnecessary construction and other development activities for three years from the announcement date of the restriction. However, projects where activity restrictions are already in effect under other laws will continue to be managed according to those laws.

This anti-speculation measure will apply to all "long-term lease housing near subway stations urban maintenance-type redevelopment project" areas from this day forward, including projects already underway. For projects already in progress, the "reference date for rights calculation" will be the public announcement date of the maintenance plan and the restriction will be based on the announcement date of the 26th for projects that have applied for prior review but have not yet been designated as maintenance zones. For projects already designated as maintenance zones, the designation date of the maintenance zone will be the reference date for rights calculation.

Han Byung-yong, Director of the Seoul Housing Policy Office, said, "As the long-term lease housing near subway stations urban maintenance-type redevelopment projects have been actively promoted with great interest recently, speculative forces have entered, causing delays in project progress and harm to original residents. To prevent such cases, we decided to implement this measure. We will continue to closely monitor and analyze market trends and consider additional measures as needed."

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