"Vacant House Act" Passes Land Subcommittee... Consent Rate Requirement Eased for Small-Scale Maintenance Association Formation

Yonhap News Agency

The "Vacant House Act," which eases the consent rate requirements for establishing associations for small-scale housing maintenance and redevelopment projects, has passed the subcommittee of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee.

On July 15, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee held a subcommittee meeting to review bills and passed the amendment to the "Special Act on Vacant Houses and Small-Scale Housing Maintenance."

The amendment lowers the consent rate required to establish an association for street housing maintenance projects and small-scale redevelopment projects from the current 80% to 75%. For small-scale reconstruction projects, the required consent rate is lowered by 5 percentage points, from 75% to 70%. Once the amendment is implemented, small-scale projects are expected to proceed more quickly.

On the same day, the subcommittee also passed amendments to the Certified Real Estate Agents Act and the "Urban Parks and Green Spaces Act" (Green Space Act).

The amendment to the Certified Real Estate Agents Act requires certified real estate agents to present supporting documents, such as trust registers and building registers, when conducting real estate transactions, in order to prevent rental fraud.

The "Special Act on the Clearance of Certain Buildings," which was one of President Lee Jaemyung's campaign pledges, was also brought up as an agenda item in the subcommittee. However, it was decided that the bill would be reviewed after a fact-finding investigation by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The bill aims to legalize illegal buildings by temporarily allowing them to obtain usage approval.