Songpa-gu Implements Improvement Measures for Local Housing Association Projects... Leading Efforts to Prevent Resident Damage

Effective Improvement Measures for Regional Housing Association Projects to Prevent Resident Damage
▲ Establishment of Standard Form for Land Use Consent ▲ Strengthening of Land Use Rights Acquisition ▲ Adjustment of Timing for Building Review Application
Songpa-gu's Unique Improvement Measures Implemented for the First Time in Seoul... Ensuring Project Stability

Songpa-gu (District Mayor Seo Gang-seok) announced that it has established and will implement the first-ever improvement measures for local housing association projects in Seoul to prevent damage to local residents and association members caused by local housing associations in advance.

The local housing association project is a system designed to help homeowners (with exclusive area of 85㎡ or less) and homeless low-income residents living in a certain area secure housing. While it offers the advantage of acquiring housing at a relatively lower cost than general apartments, many victims have occurred due to operational corruption by association executives and management agencies or delays in land acquisition.

Seo Gang-seok, Mayor of Songpa-gu, explained, “Cases where association members suffer material and mental damages due to project delays or cancellations caused by a system that is far from reality and contrary to the original purpose of the local housing association system are rapidly increasing,” adding, “We have prepared improvement measures independently to prevent resident damage.”

Accordingly, on April 17, Songpa-gu established improvement measures related to local housing association projects, including ▲preparing Songpa-gu standard forms such as ‘Land Use Consent Form’ ▲strengthening the securing of land use rights ▲adjusting the timing of architectural review applications. The district plans to promote the prevention of damage to local residents and association members through these measures.

First, Songpa-gu prepared standard forms such as the ‘Land Use Consent Form’ and ‘Land Use Agreement Form.’ Under current laws, there are no specific forms for securing land use rights, so most consent and agreement forms are arbitrarily created without detailed project explanations and signed for submission, resulting in many cases where opposition and conflicts from landowners cause project delays during the process.

Therefore, the district prepared its standard forms including project details, procedures, and information about the recruiting entity so that landowners can properly understand the project and agree to land use.

From now on, when applying for association establishment approval and member recruitment notification, the Songpa-gu ‘Land Use Consent Form’ should be used, and when applying for architectural review, the Songpa-gu ‘Land Use Agreement Form’ should be used.

Next, the criteria for securing land use rights at the time of association establishment approval have been strengthened. Even if a local housing association secures land use rights for more than 80% of the project area to establish the association, there is a high probability that the project will be prolonged or canceled because the remaining 20% of landowners oppose and the entire land cannot be purchased.

Therefore, the district added a condition that ‘land use rights’ must be secured for ‘important land’ within the project area. ‘Important land’ that may hinder the project, as defined by the district, includes ▲land with detached houses, multi-family houses, neighborhood living facilities (shops), etc., and ▲land occupying 5% or more of the total project area.

Finally, the timing of architectural review applications has been adjusted to after the association establishment. Current housing laws do not mandate the timing of architectural review applications, so if the architectural review application, including designer selection and housing project plans, is made during the member recruitment stage, unnecessary costs occur and members’ rights are infringed. Therefore, by adjusting the timing of architectural review applications to after the association establishment, members can select the designer directly through a general meeting, protecting their rights.

Seo Gang-seok, Mayor of Songpa-gu, said, “We hope that with the implementation of these improvement measures, there will be no more resident damages related to the six local housing association projects currently underway in the district,” and added, “We will continue to discover and improve unreasonable systems in local housing projects.”

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