Gangbuk-gu 'Villa Management Office' Wins Grand Prize

Nationwide First Support for Daily Life-Oriented Housing Management Including Cleaning, Facility Management, Safety, and Parking in Villas of Gangbuk-gu

Service Satisfaction at 90%, 93% of Residents Welcome Expansion of Villa Management Centers

District Mayor Lee Soon-hee: “Plan to Expand to Entire Gangbuk-gu and Help Spread as a National Standard Model”

Seoul’s Gangbuk-gu (District Mayor Lee Soon-hee) has won the Grand Prize at the ‘2023 National Basic Local Government Heads Manifesto Best Practices Competition’ held on the 26th and 27th at the National Suncheon University for its ‘Villa Management Center,’ the first of its kind operated by a local government nationwide to manage aging villas.

The Manifesto Best Practices Competition, hosted by the Korea Manifesto Practice Headquarters and the Gwangju-Jeonnam Research Institute, is held annually to discover and share excellent policies and pledge cases of city, county, and district autonomous administrations. This year marked the 13th competition, with 155 out of 226 basic local governments participating. Gangbuk-gu participated in the community strengthening category with the presentation titled ‘Nationwide First District-Operated Villa Management Center.’

Gangbuk-gu’s ‘Villa Management Center’ is one of the key pledges of District Mayor Lee Soon-hee, designed to manage small-scale multi-family housing such as villas as cleanly as apartments. The goal is to create a pleasant residential environment by managing small-scale multi-family housing collectively, just like apartments.

The center assists with services including parking and cleaning, which are the most common sources of disputes and inconvenience for villa residents, as well as facility management and safety. This unique Gangbuk-gu initiative started from the idea that everyone should have equal rights to enjoy a pleasant living environment, regardless of whether they live in apartments or luxury homes.

After a preparation period involving the establishment of a four-year basic plan and ordinance amendments last year, a pilot operation began in Beon 1-dong in March this year.

Three villa management center managers work in two shifts on weekdays and one person on weekends, managing 694 villa households within the Beon 1-dong operational area. Until the 21st, the managers conducted 4,060 cleaning operations in alleys and common facilities of multi-family housing over about five months, provided 18 facility management consultations including replacement and repair of common facilities and guidance on multi-family housing support projects. During the heavy rain period, they patrolled to identify and address safety hazards such as rainwater drains in advance, and resolved 75 other resident complaints.

The Villa Management Center has received strong support from residents for providing various daily life-oriented management services such as cleaning, facility management, safety, and parking. According to a resident satisfaction survey, the service satisfaction rate was very high at 90%, and 93% of residents expressed positive opinions about expanding the Villa Management Center.

In May, Seoul city officials visited the Villa Management Center site in connection with job creation projects. In addition, several other local governments in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province have been making inquiries about benchmarking the project.

Recognizing these achievements, the Villa Management Center won the Grand Prize in the autonomous district category in the community strengthening field at this competition, which included 24 local governments out of 155 participants. After conducting the pilot project this year and making improvements, the district plans to gradually expand the project to all neighborhoods in Gangbuk-gu, including Mia and Suyu areas, and to disseminate the best practices to other local governments.

District Mayor Lee Soon-hee said, “The Villa Management Center is a pledge project introduced by Gangbuk-gu as the first in the nation to ensure that all residents can enjoy a pleasant living environment. We will strive to further improve and develop it so that it can spread as a national standard model.”