Gyeonggi-do Establishes Urban Vacant House Maintenance Guidelines

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

Gyeonggi Province has revised the ‘Vacant House Maintenance Guidelines’ and distributed them to cities and counties to effectively promote the maintenance and utilization of urban vacant houses.

The revised guidelines include all tasks related to urban vacant houses as stipulated in the ‘Special Act on Vacant Houses and Small-scale Housing Maintenance,’ covering not only the vacant house maintenance support project that Gyeonggi Province has been promoting since 2021 but also vacant house surveys and support for establishing vacant house maintenance plans.

The main points are ▲ to improve awareness of the vacant house maintenance support project, cities and counties are to establish an annual publicity plan including sending vacant house maintenance notices to owners twice a year ▲ introducing a method where cities and counties directly maintain vacant houses to reduce the burden on owners for document preparation and demolition work ▲ recommending all cities and counties to conduct vacant house surveys and identify vacant houses for maintenance by year until 2025, establish maintenance plans accordingly, and support part of the required costs with provincial funds.

Gyeonggi Province expects that once these vacant house maintenance plans are established, maintenance can be systematically promoted according to the plans rather than relying solely on owner applications.

Since 2021, Gyeonggi Province has supported the maintenance of a total of 262 vacant houses over the past three years. In particular, after demolition, the province has encouraged public utilization such as village rest areas and parking lots, so that nearby residents also benefit from the vacant house maintenance support project.

This year, in addition to supporting vacant house maintenance, the province will support cities and counties in conducting urban vacant house surveys. Gyeonggi Province is directly purchasing and demolishing vacant houses in Dongducheon City and is completing a pilot project within the year to build a child care center utilizing vacant houses.

Kim Tae-su, Director of Urban Regeneration at Gyeonggi Province, said, "By maintaining vacant houses and utilizing them for public purposes, we can transform vacant houses, which were a nuisance in the community, into facilities that are essential to the area." He added, "Through these guidelines, we will encourage diverse public utilization of vacant houses left unattended in urban areas and promote their continuous management."

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