Seoul City Sees 61% Increase in Association Formation After Introducing Moa Housing, Boosting Small-Scale Redevelopment...

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] Since the introduction of the 'Moajutaek' system to improve the poor residential environment of aging low-rise residential areas in Seoul, small-scale maintenance projects such as street housing maintenance projects have been activated.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 6th that 42 sites have been approved for the establishment of street housing maintenance project associations over the past eight months since the system was introduced earlier this year. This is about a 61% increase compared to the same period last year (26 sites), and based on the planned number of supply households, it increased by 86%, from 3,591 households to 6,694 households.

Moajutaek is Seoul's small-scale maintenance project brand. Owners of adjacent multi-family and multi-unit housing lots in the area can combine small individual lots to jointly develop apartments on a scale of 1,500㎡, receiving various relaxation benefits. Combining these into units of less than 100,000㎡ is called Moatown. When promoting Moajutaek within Moatown through the street housing maintenance method, benefits such as project area expansion, zoning upgrades, and relaxation of excess floor area ratio can be applied.

The city expects that about 63 sites will receive association establishment approval by the end of the year if the trend continues, supplying about 10,000 households. When the city announced this system earlier this year, it set a target of "supplying a total of 30,000 households by 2026."

Currently, a total of 38 Moatown sites are in the management plan establishment and promotion stages, and the projects are progressing smoothly. The pilot project site, Beondong Moatown in Gangbuk-gu, is preparing to start construction next year after receiving project implementation plan approval within this year for five Moajutaek sites (1,240 households) following the designation notice of the management area in May. In the additional public recruitment conducted in the second half of this year, 39 sites applied, more than the first recruitment, and the target sites will be selected by the end of this month.

The city has previously established the concepts and management guidelines for Moatown and Moajutaek and relaxed various standards such as abolishing floor restrictions and easing aging criteria.

In response to criticisms that tenant measures are insufficient, a plan to relax the public rental housing construction ratio when compensating tenant losses will be implemented within this month. Additionally, when selecting target sites, residential vulnerable areas such as semi-basements and flood-prone areas will be prioritized, while areas with concerns about resident conflicts, new construction, and speculation will be excluded.

Simultaneously with the selection of Moatown, a rights assessment reference date will be designated to block share splitting, and speculative demand will be fundamentally suppressed through restrictions on construction activities in areas where project implementation is possible within Moatown. However, since the method involves residents individually establishing associations for small-scale maintenance, plans are in place to implement speculative demand suppression measures within the scope of minimizing infringement on private property rights due to excessive regulation.

Yoo Changsoo, Director of Housing Policy at Seoul City, said, "When promoting Moatown, we will prioritize maintenance of residential vulnerable areas in the spirit of accompanying the housing weak and carefully review to prevent speculative demand."