Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to Conduct Vacant House Survey with Local Governments Starting This Month
The government will collaborate with local governments to conduct a survey on vacant houses in rural areas. The status of vacant houses will be sequentially disclosed on the vacant house information platform, and furthermore, a 'Vacant House Bank' will be established to provide detailed information on usable vacant houses so that the private sector can utilize this information for sales, leasing, and other purposes.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on the 7th that, to accurately grasp the actual condition of rural vacant houses, it will invest a total of 5 billion KRW from national and local budgets and officially launch the rural vacant house survey in cooperation with local governments starting in February.
According to the Rural and Fishing Village Development Act, since 2021, mayors, county governors, and district heads have been required to conduct surveys on vacant houses. However, there have been ongoing concerns that surveys conducted solely by local governments have limitations in accurately understanding and utilizing rural vacant houses.
As of the end of January this year, 63 cities, counties, and districts across 14 metropolitan and provincial areas have expressed their intention to participate in this rural vacant house survey, and the survey will be conducted first in these areas through the Korea Real Estate Board, one of the specialized survey institutions.
The survey will be conducted by professional investigators according to the 'National Vacant House Survey Integrated Guidelines' jointly distributed by related ministries in June last year. They will collect detailed information on rural vacant houses, including exact addresses, locations, housing types, vacant house grades, as well as whether the owners consent to sales or utilization, and the Real Estate Board will comprehensively analyze this data.
The survey will be conducted by each participating city, county, and district, and the rural vacant house status of local governments where the survey is completed will be sequentially disclosed through 'Small-scale & Vacant House Information Notification e,' a nationwide urban and rural vacant house information platform.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to promote the establishment of a Vacant House Bank that provides detailed information on usable vacant houses so that the private sector can use rural vacant house information for sales, leasing, and other purposes. To this end, it plans to conduct demonstration research in collaboration with interested local governments and private entities.
Additionally, based on the results of the rural vacant house survey, the ministry will actively promote projects that support the maintenance of vacant houses as part of rural housing improvement support, and share the results with related ministries and local governments to accelerate the maintenance of rural vacant houses.
Kim Jong-gu, Director of the Rural Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said, "We hope that this rural vacant house survey will serve as a foundation to systematically promote the maintenance of vacant houses by accurately understanding their status," and added, "We plan to continue consultations with related organizations and the private sector to prepare various ways to utilize rural vacant houses."
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