[Exclusive] Seoul City to Conduct Comprehensive Survey of 'City Land Outside the City'... Considering Land Swap and Sale

Location map of Gwangmyeong Youth Welfare Center among the pilot project sites for utilizing city-owned land outside the city.

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is launching a full survey of 'underutilized sites' it owns outside the city. Based on the results of this survey, the city is reportedly considering options such as exchanging these sites for government-owned land within Seoul or selling them. If necessary, direct development is also being considered. The pilot project sites include key locations in Gwangmyeong, Gunpo, and Gwacheon in Gyeonggi Province, drawing attention to specific utilization plans.

According to the maintenance industry on the 12th, Seoul recently began a full survey of 'city-owned land outside the city,' including 69,897㎡ around 740 Haan-dong, Gwangmyeong City; 58,523㎡ around 1100 Sanbon-dong, Gunpo City; and 33,086㎡ around 1 Juam-dong, Gwacheon City.

Currently, the Gwangmyeong Haan-dong site houses the Youth Welfare Center, the Gunpo Sanbon-dong site contains the Seoul Southern Technical Education Center, and the Gwacheon Juam-dong site has the Seoul Health and Environment Research Institute. The city believes these lands are not being used efficiently relative to their location and size. For example, the Gwangmyeong Youth Welfare Center was built as nine five-story apartment buildings and was formerly used as dormitories for female factory workers but is now left vacant. The adjacent 25,000㎡ site is used as a community sports facility. Located near Cheolsan Station on Subway Line 7 and surrounded by large new apartment complexes, it is considered a prime location within Gwangmyeong. However, as it is zoned as a Type 1 General Residential Area under urban planning, development is currently limited.

The Gunpo Sanbon-dong site of the Seoul Southern Technical Education Center is zoned as a Type 3 General Residential Area and currently includes the technical education center (18,000㎡) and welfare facilities (5,820㎡). The Gwacheon site of the Seoul Health and Environment Research Institute is designated as a natural green area, consisting of 25,100㎡ for education, research, and laboratories, and 354㎡ for childcare facilities.

The city plans to investigate the current status of these lands and comprehensively review optimal utilization plans. It will consider mixed-use development to generate economic returns or exchanging the land with national and public land within Seoul.

City-owned land outside Seoul has mostly been used on an 'as-is' basis without intensive utilization. Because the managing entities are dispersed, there has been no control tower to coordinate organic use of these sites.

The shortage of city-owned land within Seoul is also a background factor for this full survey. Since 2018, the city has been searching for small and large city-owned lands within Seoul to use for public housing supply and other purposes. This was Seoul's self-help measure to respond to concerns over housing supply shortages triggered by soaring real estate prices and government demands to lift greenbelt restrictions. The city pledged to supply an additional 80,000 housing units in Seoul by 2022 through measures such as 'housing on roads.' However, market concerns about housing shortages in Seoul remain. The city stated, "Public demand has increased, but due to limitations of city-owned land within Seoul, it is difficult to respond flexibly. To meet the continuously growing policy demand, we will prepare linkage plans between city-owned land within Seoul and outside the city."

The city plans to identify city-owned land outside Seoul that can be used efficiently, develop utilization concepts, categorize them, establish guidelines, and build a database. Among these, priority management sites will be selected, and development methods such as entrusted development, private investment, and fiscal projects will be considered. The related service is scheduled to be completed by the first half of next year.

A Seoul city official said, "We will actively utilize public land management policies in outlying areas by expanding and diversifying asset management methods that reflect the value of land resources. We will maximize the utilization of public land resources in line with changes in urban paradigms."