[Reporter’s Notebook] Will Building New Homes Make Vacant Houses Disappear?

As soon as I arrived in Baegui-ri, Yeoncheon County, the northernmost part of Gyeonggi Province, I immediately noticed the empty houses. Houses with collapsed walls and sunken roofs were barely standing. After nearly an hour of asking around, I finally heard from a local resident about why so many vacant houses had appeared.

This place was once a thriving rural village with about 1,000 residents. As elderly residents gradually passed away, empty houses began to appear. The children who inherited these homes left them abandoned, saying, "Selling the house would not bring much profit," and the number of vacant houses steadily increased.

The county office has not been idle. They renovated dilapidated houses into guesthouses and cafes, entrusting their operation to the village cooperative. However, this was not enough to stop the village's decline. The only daycare center in the village closed its doors several years ago, and the guesthouse and cafe are barely maintaining their income by relying on soldiers from the nearby military base.

In this way, local governments and government ministries alike are rolling out a series of vacant house policies focused on remodeling. The approach is to convert empty houses into rental housing or cultural spaces, or if that is not feasible, to turn them into parking lots. The "Comprehensive Government Plan for Vacant House Management," announced last month by four government ministries including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, follows the same pattern. It includes plans to remodel vacant houses in rural and fishing villages and provide them to returnees to farming and rural areas, as well as to young people. Even presidential campaign pledges have not gone beyond this. Kim Moonsoo, the People Power Party presidential candidate, promised to repair vacant houses and rent them out free of charge to retired seniors and young people.

Village residents were skeptical about the projects to renovate empty houses. They argued that simply fixing up houses would not bring people into a village with no jobs or tourist attractions. A local government official I met during the reporting process also remarked, "Even policies seem to have trends," pointing out the repeated use of remodeling as a supposed cure-all.

This comment deserves careful consideration. Most of the measures currently proposed by the government and local authorities focus solely on "how to fix" vacant houses. From the perspective of the responsible departments, remodeling is the easiest way to show results in a short time. The image of a young person moving into a neatly renovated house is also ideal for promotional purposes.

However, fixing only the exterior cannot solve the problem. The first step should be to examine "why vacant houses appeared in the first place." Experts point out that the reasons for vacant houses differ by location, such as the Seoul metropolitan area, small and medium-sized cities, and rural areas. In rural areas like Yeoncheon County, population decline and lack of jobs are the main causes. In small and medium-sized cities and the metropolitan area, reckless new town development and delays in redevelopment projects result in vacant houses.

Measures for vacant houses in rural areas must include both housing renovation and infrastructure improvement. Even if vacant houses are supplied to people returning to rural areas, without workplaces and essential infrastructure to support their livelihoods, these people will inevitably leave for urban areas again. In cities, demolition support is needed, especially in areas where redevelopment projects are delayed. To prevent urban slumification, local governments should designate these areas as intensive management zones and proactively carry out demolitions. Small and medium-sized cities should avoid indiscriminate new town development. Development and permitting standards that reflect population trends are needed to prevent new housing supplied on the outskirts from draining the population from older city centers.

A vacant house is not simply an empty space; it is a place left behind by people. Before rebuilding with bricks in that space, we must first consider "why they left."