Soaring Real Estate Prices in Seoul Impact
95.9% of Apgujeong Police Station Reconstruction Budget Allocated to Land Compensation
29.29 billion KRW, 14.189 billion KRW, 12.52 billion KRW, 11.064 billion KRW.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's 2024 budget includes construction costs for the Apgujeong, Yeonnam, Euljiro 3-ga, and Garak district police substations. The Apgujeong Police Substation, with a budget approaching 30 billion KRW, has become the most expensive police substation in history. The Apgujeong Police Substation, built as a three-story building, has a total floor area of only 442㎡ (approximately 134 pyeong). This is due to the skyrocketing real estate prices in Seoul.
According to data titled “2024 Seoul Police Agency New Construction Project Budget (Government Proposal) Status” provided by the office of Jeong Woo-taek, a member of the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee, to the Seoul Police Agency on the 30th, the Seoul Police Agency is currently promoting the construction of 26 police substations and district substations within Seoul.
The largest budget is allocated to the Apgujeong Police Substation in Gangnam-gu, with construction costs reaching 29.29 billion KRW. The high construction cost relative to the floor area is entirely due to land prices. 95.5% (28 billion KRW) of the Apgujeong Police Substation construction budget is spent on land compensation.
The police are forced to relocate and rebuild the Apgujeong Police Substation because the current site, which is 40 years old, is owned by Gangnam-gu Office. Due to many defects caused by aging, repairs have been made frequently, leading to the decision to rebuild. The new site is traded at around 2 to 3 billion KRW per pyeong (3.3㎡).
Yeonnam Police Substation in Mapo-gu (14.189 billion KRW), Euljiro 3-ga Police Substation in Jung-gu (12.52 billion KRW), and Garak District Police Substation in Songpa-gu (11.064 billion KRW) also have enormous construction costs allocated. Most of these construction costs are also land prices. For Yeonnam Police Substation, 13 billion KRW (91.6%), for Euljiro 3-ga Police Substation, 11.73 billion KRW (93.7%), and for Garak District Police Substation, 10 billion KRW (86.2%) are land costs respectively.
The police are also promoting reconstruction projects for 11 out of 31 police stations within Seoul. The reconstruction projects for Seodaemun Police Station and Yangcheon Police Station have budgets of 58.043 billion KRW and 50.056 billion KRW respectively. It is reported that the rise in construction material prices and labor costs since the COVID-19 period has influenced these budgets. In the past, reconstruction costs for police stations were mostly under 50 billion KRW, but recently they have been explained to cost around 60 to 70 billion KRW.
Meanwhile, for typical police substations and district substations in Seoul where land prices have not surged, budgets of around 1 to 2 billion KRW are usually invested. Examples include Yeomchang District Police Substation with 1.5 billion KRW (2020), Gildong District Police Substation with 2.3 billion KRW (2021), and Mok 1 District Police Substation planned with 2.1 billion KRW (2024).
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
