"Deciding After Reviewing Trends in Residential Environment Improvement by Expanding Officetel Balconies"

The government has decided to lift the ban on installing balconies in officetels and will monitor future residential environment improvements to determine whether to allow expansions. Along with this, the restriction on room installations in urban lifestyle housing will be abolished to accelerate the supply of various types of housing. The criteria for redevelopment project aging requirements will also be relaxed. Accordingly, from the end of March, redevelopment projects will be possible if buildings over 30 years old account for more than 60% within the redevelopment zone.

Multifamily and row (villa) houses in Seoul city / Photo by Yonhap News

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The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced on the 30th that, as a follow-up to the 'Housing Supply Expansion and Construction Industry Support Measures' announced on the 10th of this month, it will begin legislative and administrative notices for amendments to 11 enforcement decrees and administrative rules, including the Urban Renewal Act Enforcement Decree, starting from the 31st.

The enforcement decrees aim to be legislatively notified by the end of February, go through the Cabinet meeting, and be implemented around the end of March. The administrative notice period will last until the 13th of next month. A MOLIT official stated, "We plan to shorten the legislative notification period to advance the timing of subordinate law amendments from the originally planned April to March."

Accordingly, installing balconies in officetels will effectively be possible from early March. Until now, balconies in officetels were restricted due to narrow spacing between buildings. However, MOLIT expects that adding balconies to existing officetels will be difficult considering safety issues. A MOLIT official said, "Although balconies could be added using various construction methods, for safety reasons, only officetels currently under construction or planned to be built will be eligible."

Furthermore, if installing balconies in officetels proves beneficial for improving the residential environment, MOLIT plans to consider allowing balcony expansions. Under current law, balcony expansions are only permitted for housing. Officetels are classified as quasi-housing office facilities and thus do not qualify. The official explained, "Balconies serve as buffer spaces between interior and exterior, but until now, there were concerns that installing balconies in officetels might blur the distinction from housing and whether it would truly improve the residential environment. However, since we have proactively allowed installation, we will monitor the situation and consider expansion if necessary."

The abolition of room installation restrictions in urban lifestyle housing, an amendment to the Housing Act Enforcement Decree, reflects the previous limitation that units under 30㎡ must be composed only of studio types. For units between 30㎡ and 60㎡, only up to 50% of the total households could have up to three bedrooms, with the remainder required to be studio types. Removing the room installation restriction will allow more diverse layouts such as 1.5-room or two-room units that separate the kitchen and living room.

The aging requirement for redevelopment projects has been relaxed to 60% (50% for redevelopment promotion districts) in the Urban Renewal Act Enforcement Decree amendment. Currently, two-thirds or more must be met. For areas not meeting the criteria, the allowable inclusion area will increase from the current 10% to 20%. This is expected to increase redevelopment-eligible areas by about 10%. Additionally, for small-scale housing maintenance management areas, redevelopment projects will be allowed even if roads wider than 4 meters pass through the project zone, enabling inclusion of areas across the street. MOLIT expects these improvements to project requirements and utilization of leftover land to have positive effects.

Through these measures, MOLIT aims to revitalize housing supply in urban centers and contribute to housing stability for one- and two-person households. Minister Park Sang-woo has pledged since before his appointment to sufficiently supply housing in preferred locations such as urban centers. Minister Park stated, "We will focus our efforts on swiftly implementing follow-up tasks of the measures so that the public can feel the impact of government policies."

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