Seoul City Completely Revises Redevelopment Promotion Plan After 18 Years... Public Contributions Abolished and Non-Residential Ratio Relaxed

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is completely overhauling the standards for establishing redevelopment promotion plans for the first time in 18 years.

On the 19th, the city announced that it reported the direction of the comprehensive revision of the standards for establishing redevelopment promotion plans to the 3rd Urban Redevelopment Committee to improve the feasibility of redevelopment promotion projects.

Through this revision, the city will immediately abolish the mandatory public contribution standard within redevelopment promotion districts. Instead of the existing 10% mandatory public contribution standard, it will be applied differentially based on whether infrastructure requirements are met.

Relaxation of the non-residential ratio for commercial and quasi-residential areas will also be implemented immediately. For commercial areas, the existing requirement of at least 20% will be reduced to at least 10%, and for quasi-residential areas, the current requirement of at least 10% will be abolished.

Additionally, the city will promote the restructuring of the floor area ratio (FAR) system and introduce a project feasibility adjustment coefficient, which had only been applied to general maintenance projects. The project feasibility adjustment coefficient is an FAR incentive improvement measure introduced by the city through the Urban and Residential Environment Maintenance Basic Plan targeting areas with low land prices. Furthermore, the legal maximum FAR limit (1.2 times the FAR under the National Land Planning and Utilization Act) will be expanded to the entire redevelopment promotion district, and sequential improvement plans will be prepared, such as establishing density and height standards for each redevelopment promotion district. The introduction of the project feasibility adjustment coefficient and the maximum FAR limit is scheduled to take effect in June.

To enable rapid application of the revised standards to each project site, the city plans to amend ordinances to simplify the procedures for changing redevelopment promotion plans, allowing changes to rental housing plans to be handled as minor administrative tasks. In addition, education on the revision contents will be provided to district offices and associations.

Previously, starting with pilot New Towns in 2002, the city designated a total of 35 New Town districts in three phases. In 2006, under the "Special Act on the Promotion of Urban Redevelopment," these were designated as redevelopment promotion districts. As of this month, 112 redevelopment promotion projects are being carried out in 31 districts.

Choi Jin-seok, Director of the Housing Office of Seoul City, stated, "We expect significant improvements in project feasibility for many project sites due to the comprehensive revision of the standards for establishing redevelopment promotion plans," and added, "We plan to spare no institutional support for redevelopment promotion projects to ensure sufficient housing supply is provided in a timely manner."