[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] Seoul City will relax the maximum number of floors from the existing 7 floors to within 10 floors when carrying out street housing maintenance projects in the Category 2 General Residential Area (7 floors or less).
On the 20th, Seoul City announced that it has prepared and will implement the "Small-scale Housing Maintenance Project Review Standards" containing such content. Until now, street housing maintenance projects, according to the "Seoul Metropolitan Government Ordinance on Vacant Houses and Small-scale Housing Maintenance," could be relaxed up to a maximum of 15 floors and the statutory floor area ratio (250%) when constructing rental housing through review. However, in the Category 2 General Residential Area with 7 floors or less, the maximum number of floors was limited to 7 floors or less, making it difficult to build housing up to the statutory floor area ratio (250%).
A Seoul City official said, "The review standards prepared this time were made considering the legislative intent of the two ordinances, and we expect that street housing maintenance projects can be revitalized in the Category 2 General Residential Area with 7 floors or less."
According to the newly prepared review standards, the number of floors for street housing maintenance projects in the Category 2 General Residential Area with 7 floors or less will be relaxed within a maximum of 10 floors when constructing rental housing. For project sites with a site area of 3,000㎡ and developed on a block basis, it will be relaxed within a maximum of 15 floors considering additional public contributions (donations) and surrounding conditions. In the Category 2 General Residential Area without floor restrictions, it is possible to relax up to 15 floors without additional public contributions when constructing rental housing.
The floor area ratio relaxation application standards, which are relaxed up to the statutory floor area ratio due to the construction of rental housing (public rental housing, publicly supported private rental housing), have also been improved to be applied differentially according to the rental period, considering public nature and fairness. When supplying public rental housing with a mandatory rental period of 30 years, relaxation is allowed up to the statutory floor area ratio (250% for Category 2 General Residential Area, 300% for Category 3 General Residential Area), and the floor area ratio is applied differentially by 10% every 10 years according to the rental period. For publicly supported private rental housing with a rental period of 10 years, relaxation is possible up to 230% in the Category 2 General Residential Area and 280% in the Category 3 General Residential Area.
Ryu Hoon, Director of Seoul City Urban Regeneration Office, said, "We expect that this institutional improvement measure will improve the conditions for small-scale housing maintenance projects and shorten the project period," adding, "It will be especially helpful in areas where it was difficult to secure relaxed floor area ratios without floor relaxation."
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