Jugeonhyeop: "Urgent Improvement Needed in 'Education Office Consultation Process' Hindering New Housing Supply"

The Korea Housing Builders Association recently announced on the 11th that it has proposed improvements to the difficulties encountered during the consultation process with the Office of Education, which has become the biggest obstacle in housing project permits, to related ministries including the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The proposals include ▲improving excessive donation conditions in consultations with the Office of Education ▲expanding personnel for reviewing educational environment evaluations and designating additional institutions ▲flexible establishment of new schools ▲relaxing the number of households required for mandatory school site securing ▲and lowering the imposition rate of school site charges.

According to the Korea Housing Builders Association, difficulties in the consultation process with the Office of Education pose a greater challenge to housing project implementation than the permit procedures of local governments.

A representative issue is the excessive donation problem arising during the consultation process with the Office of Education. Before local governments approve housing project plans, they require agreement with the Office of Education on student allocation, so even if the school facility donations proposed by the Office of Education are excessive, developers have no choice but to accept them, explained the Korea Housing Builders Association.

Furthermore, if there are insufficient classrooms in nearby schools to accommodate the increased school-age population due to development projects, and the Office of Education finds it difficult to expand or renovate schools due to budget shortages, housing developers face enormous financial costs from project delays and thus have no choice but to comply with the Office of Education’s demands.

In addition to classroom expansion or renovation, there are cases of donations exceeding the statutory school site charge amount due to large-scale auxiliary facility installations and additional land purchases. Recently, in the Baeksa District of Icheon City, Gyeonggi Province, a housing project of 880 households was only able to receive project plan approval after signing a donation agreement worth 23 billion KRW, approximately nine times the calculated school site charge of 2.7 billion KRW.

A representative from the Korea Housing Builders Association stated, “Although development projects are closely related to securing school facilities, the burden of school facility donations should be determined within an appropriate range,” adding, “Urgent improvements are needed to address factors that hinder smooth housing supply due to excessive donation burdens, which ultimately harm the improvement of national housing standards and housing stability.”