Government: "Revolutionary Reduction in Maintenance Projects... Will Also Eliminate Permit Delays"

2nd Real Estate and Supply Situation Inspection TF
Reflected in Additional Housing Supply Measures This Month

Apartment prices are fluctuating across Seoul. According to the weekly apartment price trends from the Korea Real Estate Board, Seoul housing prices have risen for 11 consecutive weeks from the fourth week of March until last week. Now, areas like Nowon, Dobong, and Gangbuk, which had lagged behind Gangnam, have also turned to an upward trend. The 84㎡ exclusive area apartment in Gyeonghuigung Xi, considered the "flagship apartment" of northern Seoul, was traded for 2.15 billion KRW on the 30th of last month (based on actual transaction prices from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport). This is a 200 million KRW increase compared to January (1.95 billion KRW). The photo shows the apartment sale and jeonse price information board hung near Gyeonghuigung Xi apartments in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 12th. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

The government announced plans to devise measures that can drastically shorten the duration of housing maintenance projects in order to curb rising housing prices in the Seoul metropolitan area.

On the 1st, related agencies including the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) held the '2nd Real Estate Market and Supply Situation Review Task Force (TF)' meeting. This meeting was a follow-up to the first meeting held on the 26th of last month, where the government discussed available policy tools to prepare the 'Additional Housing Supply Expansion Plan' scheduled to be announced in August.

Participants confirmed that "the volume of apartment sales transactions in Seoul and the metropolitan area has been steadily increasing since the beginning of this year," and stated, "We will closely monitor the market situation while thoroughly guarding against speculative demand inflows that could lead to increased housing price volatility."

They also declared that they will respond strongly to market disruption activities by speculative forces through continuous investigations. Specifically, they cited a case where homeowners in a certain apartment complex led collusion on housing prices by coercing sellers and real estate agents not to list properties below a certain price. This was reported to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s Real Estate Transaction Order Disruption Reporting Center, investigated, and recently referred to the prosecution.

Efforts to expand public housing supply by public sectors such as LH will also be strengthened. To ensure that public housing is supplied to actual demanders according to the planned schedule, all stages related to supply?including project approval, groundbreaking, completion, and occupancy?will be closely managed.

The commitment to accelerate maintenance projects was reaffirmed. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will hold permit coordination meetings with basic local governments by region starting with the metropolitan area in August to eliminate permit delays and will actively support agreements on construction cost adjustments through expert dispatch and mediation at maintenance project sites to resolve the backlog of projects awaiting groundbreaking.

Participants emphasized, "We will discuss measures to drastically shorten the duration of maintenance projects and include them in the housing supply expansion plan to be announced later this month."

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