“Quickly devise a plan to see the effect quickly”
High-density development such as station area and semi-industrial areas
Redevelopment and redevelopment activation seems to speed up
Blue House Photo Reporters
With President Moon Jae-in’s emphasis on expanding supply to stabilize the housing market, the government’s measures to expand housing supply in downtown Seoul before the Lunar New Year are drawing more attention. President Moon said in his New Year’s speech on the 11th, “We will not hesitate to prepare necessary measures for housing stability, and we will quickly come up with various housing supply plans that can be quickly effective with a special emphasis on supply expansion.” In the last year’s’July 10 Countermeasures’, he made it clear that he would focus on expanding supply in the future, seeing that a large framework was established for the policy to suppress demand. Since the appointment of Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Byun Chang-heum, who served as president of Seoul Housing and Urban Corporation (SH) and Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) at the end of last year, analysis has been raised that the main means of stabilizing house prices by the government is supply expansion. In this New Year’s speech, President Moon emphasized the expansion of supply and lowered his head, saying, “I am very sorry to the people who are discouraged by the difficulties of housing.” This apology came out because President Moon has not yet achieved such achievements even though President Moon emphasized the “war on real estate speculation” in his New Year’s address each year from 2018, the year after his inauguration, and expressed his will to stabilize house prices several times. In particular, from the second half of last year, despite government measures pouring out one after another, housing prices have soared nationwide, causing’real estate public sentiment’ to fluctuate with disappointment and anger. In line with President Moon’s New Year’s remark, the government is expected to come up with various plans soon to expand the supply of housing in downtown Seoul. First, it is expected that a plan to supply a sufficient amount of apartments for sale in downtown Seoul through the high-density development of station areas, semi-industrial areas, and low-rise residential areas, which Minister Byeon emphasized at the National Assembly personnel hearing and recent meetings with housing providers. Regarding the improvement plan for the station area, it is expected to include a plan to build more dense houses by increasing the floor area ratio while expanding the area of the station area. It is discussed how to expand the range of the station area to a station radius of 500m, increase the floor area ratio for residential areas to 300%, and up to 700% for quasi-residential areas. Minister Byeon said at a recent meeting with housing providers, “We will supply rental housing in parallel depending on the location conditions, focusing on pre-sale housing with high demand rather than public rental housing that some of the market is concerned about.” A plan to further reinforce the housing supply function in the existing urban regeneration that maintains the original shape of the neighborhood and improves the residential environment is also considered. Minister Byun has suggested large-scale development projects such as Liv Gauche in Paris, Hudson Yard in New York, and Roppongi in Japan as a new urban regeneration business model. There is a possibility that plans to link existing maintenance projects such as urban regeneration, redevelopment, and reconstruction will be promoted. In addition, a plan to significantly increase incentives given to residents is expected to be subject to review, assuming the participation of public institutions to promote private redevelopment and reconstruction. In order to induce active participation of the cooperative, it is noted whether a plan to increase the floor area ratio or to somewhat ease the requirement for donation of rental housing will be included. By Choi Jong-hoon, staff reporter [email protected]