Choi Sang-mok: "Additional Supply of 210,000 Housing Units Including Greenbelt Release and 3rd New Towns"

Government, Real Estate Ministers' Meeting
Announces 'Housing Supply Expansion Plan'
Non-Apartment Purchase Rental Housing Greatly Expanded from 120,000 to 160,000 Units

Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Economy and Finance, is speaking on additional response measures and directions for institutional improvement regarding the Wemakeprice and TMON incidents at the Economic Ministers' Meeting held on the 7th at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno, Seoul. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Minister of Strategy and Finance, announced on the 8th, "We will additionally supply more than 210,000 housing units in highly preferred locations centered around Seoul and the metropolitan area by lifting the Greenbelt restrictions near Seoul and improving land use efficiency in the 3rd New Towns."

In his opening remarks at the Real Estate Related Ministers' Meeting on the same day, Deputy Prime Minister Choi stated, "The key to stabilizing the real estate market lies in sufficient housing supply that meets demand and appropriate liquidity management." Through this housing supply expansion plan, a total of more than 427,000 housing units and new sites will be supplied in Seoul and the metropolitan area over the next six years.

Specifically, Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, "We will discover more than 80,000 new sites by lifting the Greenbelt near Seoul to ensure sufficient housing supply, and until the announcement of new sites, we will designate the entire Seoul Greenbelt area as a land transaction permission zone to thoroughly manage speculative demand."

He also stated, "For public land in the metropolitan area, such as the 3rd New Towns adjacent to Seoul, we will additionally supply more than 20,000 housing units through land use efficiency improvements." Deputy Prime Minister Choi emphasized, "We will rapidly supply more than 110,000 newly built and purchased rental non-apartment units such as villas, and in the case of Seoul, we will supply non-apartment units without limit until the supply situation normalizes." The total scale of non-apartment purchase rentals, including new and existing buildings, will be significantly expanded from the previous plan of 120,000 units to at least 160,000 units.

He also presented measures for reconstruction and redevelopment. Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, "Among the housing supply already planned in Seoul and the metropolitan area, 217,000 units will be supplied to actual demanders as early as possible," and added, "We will enact a special law to promote reconstruction and redevelopment (tentative name) to accelerate the speed of reconstruction and redevelopment, which are key to urban housing supply, so that 176,000 units will be started over the next six years."

The plan includes significantly integrating and simplifying the redevelopment procedures to shorten the reconstruction and redevelopment period by about three years, and improving project profitability through acquisition tax reductions for union members and additional floor area ratio grants. He mentioned that for public land in the metropolitan area, if construction starts by 2025, LH will purchase unsold units in case of unsold inventory, thereby inducing early supply of 41,000 units in the metropolitan area.

Deputy Prime Minister Choi said, "On the demand side, we will focus on strengthening market liquidity and household loan management and blocking speculative demand." He explained that the second phase of the stress Debt Service Ratio (DSR) will be implemented as scheduled from September 1, gradually solidifying and expanding DSR regulations.

He emphasized, "We will also strengthen monitoring and analysis of the overall household loan growth rate and risk factors, and based on this, we will soon prepare additional macroprudential regulatory strengthening measures." He added, "To eradicate speculative transactions and crack down on market disturbance acts, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will immediately activate a joint on-site inspection team with related ministries to inspect the entire metropolitan area for illegal activities such as false listings, false reports, disguised gifts, and loans."