Referencing Housing Supply Cases on Railway Land
Examining Facilities for Mixed Social Groups and Single-Person Households
Seoul Mayor Oh Sehun visited public housing sites in Vienna, Austria, to explore ways to expand high-quality public housing that accommodates a diverse mix of social groups.
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The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on July 3 that Mayor Oh visited Sonnwendviertel, located near Vienna Central Station, and the Nordbahnhof district, which was redeveloped from former railway facilities and land, over two days starting July 1 (local time). During his visit, he examined examples of public housing supply that utilized large-scale idle spaces within the city.
This overseas trip was organized to seek groundbreaking measures for housing expansion by studying public housing cases that make use of various idle sites.
First, at Sonnwendviertel, Mayor Oh toured the "Sonnwendviertel C.01 Complex," which was developed on idle railway land south of the central station. He inspected public housing facilities designed for newlyweds, single young adults, and elderly households. Sonnwendviertel is a district developed through public-private collaboration on approximately 44 hectares of idle railway land near the central station. The area supplies high-quality, affordable housing?including SMART homes?that enables people from a wide range of backgrounds to live together.
At Nordbahnhof, Mayor Oh examined the development cases of "Junges Wohnen," a public housing project specialized for one- to two-person youth households, and "Nordbahnhof 43." Nordbahnhof is currently being developed as a mixed-use residential district on approximately 85 hectares of idle railway land, with the capacity to house about 20,000 people. Under a long-term, publicly led master plan, affordable housing is organically linked with educational, green, and ecological restoration spaces.
Additionally, Vienna is currently issuing "housing bonds" to secure stable funding for housing supply, and operates a system in which the profits are shared with citizens. Seoul is also considering measures such as "regional coexistence REITs" to secure stable housing supply funding and share benefits with citizens, and views Vienna as a valuable reference case.
After touring the sites, Mayor Oh stated, "Expanding the supply of public rental housing where diverse groups?including one- to two-person households, young people, the elderly, and newlyweds?can live together, and providing high-quality rental housing in excellent locations with convenient transportation, as well as care, medical, and community facilities, are key to the future of public housing supply." He emphasized that the city will focus not only on quantitative expansion but also on qualitative improvement of public housing.
Meanwhile, since announcing its high-quality rental housing supply plan in 2022, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has been pursuing projects to improve rental housing quality, promote social mixing, and redevelop aging rental complexes. Since 2021, Seoul has supplied a total of 74,000 public housing units. The city is also reconstructing the Hagye 5 Complex as a leading model of high-quality rental housing, supplying approximately 1,500 public housing units and open community SOC facilities.
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