[News Terms] 21 Years of 'Back and Forth' with Regimes, 'Reconstruction Safety Inspection'

Reconstruction safety inspections are a stage that determines whether reconstruction should be implemented by investigating the safety of the structure, repair costs, and surrounding conditions according to the degree of aging and deterioration of housing. This was introduced under the Act on Maintenance and Improvement of Urban Areas and Dwelling Conditions enacted in 2003. The purpose of its introduction was to stabilize the real estate market by preventing excessive reconstruction and resource waste.

A banner reading 'Passed Detailed Safety Inspection' posted in front of Jamwon Hangang Apartment. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

The first step of reconstruction, the safety inspection, proceeds in the order of preliminary safety inspection and detailed safety inspection. Each stage is divided into grades A to E, and reconstruction can only be pursued if it receives a D grade (conditional reconstruction) or an E grade (reconstruction confirmed).

The evaluation items are broadly divided into four categories: structural safety, equipment performance, residential environment, and economic feasibility. Among these, the most stringent item is structural safety. As the name suggests, this evaluates how structurally safe the building is, determined by comprehensively diagnosing factors such as building tilt, load-bearing capacity, and durability. If the weighting of structural safety in the evaluation items increases, the threshold for reconstruction inevitably becomes higher.

Accordingly, the weighting of structural safety has been tightened or loosened repeatedly in connection with the real estate policy directions of successive governments. The Roh Moo-hyun administration, which set the structural safety proportion at 45% when the safety inspection system was introduced, raised it to 50% in 2006. On the other hand, the Lee Myung-bak administration, which focused on revitalizing the real estate market, reduced it to 40% in 2009, and the Park Geun-hye administration lowered it further to 20% in 2015.

The Moon Jae-in administration, which concentrated on curbing housing prices in Gangnam, also used safety inspections as a key measure. The Moon administration raised the structural safety weighting from 20%, which had fallen under the Park administration, back to 50%, while lowering the residential environment weighting?which evaluates parking spaces, inter-floor noise, sunlight, etc.?to 15%, thereby regulating the reconstruction market.

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration is also utilizing safety inspections as part of real estate economic stimulus measures. Following the reduction of the structural safety proportion in safety inspection evaluation items from 50% to 30% in January last year, it decided on the 10th to introduce a so-called ‘fast track’ allowing apartments over 30 years old to start reconstruction without a safety inspection.

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