Online General Meetings and Electronic Consent Implemented from December 4
Collection and Verification Period Shortened by Several Months
Costs Reduced by Up to 6 Million Won
Hong Eun 15 District Achieves Consent Rate in Just 27 Days
In the Hong Eun 15 District of Seodaemun-gu, which is promoting a redevelopment project for 1,834 households in the Hong Eun-dong area, the legally required consent rate of 75% for establishing a cooperative was achieved in just 27 days last month. This marks the shortest period ever recorded in the history of urban renewal projects. Thanks to the active use of electronic consent forms, the process of collecting consents, which was expected to take several months, was dramatically reduced to around one month.
Starting December 4, the "online general meeting" and "electronic consent" methods will be fully introduced for urban renewal projects, including reconstruction and redevelopment. By utilizing online electronic signatures, the period for collecting consent forms-which used to take over five months at most-can be shortened to as little as two weeks, accelerating the reconstruction process.
According to the real estate industry, with the enforcement of the amended Urban and Residential Environment Improvement Act (commonly known as the Urban Renewal Act) from this day, all redevelopment projects nationwide can now use online general meetings and electronic consent systems. Including electronic voting, which was preemptively introduced in June, all three so-called "electronic systems" are now available.
The urban renewal industry expects that the collection of consent forms can be completed within two weeks at most. Various documents can now be submitted online without visiting the district office. Previously, it took three months to collect the consent forms and another two months to verify them.
The cost-saving effect is also significant. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the maximum cost for collecting consent forms once for a 3,000-household project is 150 million won. If the submission rate is low, each project hires external OS personnel, whose daily wage is around 200,000 won per person. The longer the collection period, the greater the burden on the cooperative. The ministry estimates that using electronic consent for collecting forms can reduce expenses to between 4.5 million and 6 million won.
The market for electronic systems related to urban renewal projects is expected to grow further. Previously, pilot projects were conducted as part of a regulatory sandbox. Cooperatives could only contract with companies that had received "service launch notification" among those granted demonstration exemptions by the Ministry of Science and ICT (EJM Company, ReadyPost, and Korea Proptech). For online general meetings, only EJM Company and ReadyPost could be used.
Interest in electronic systems is high among cooperatives. In July, Changdong Jugong 4 Complex, which is undergoing reconstruction for 1,850 households, secured over 500 electronic consent forms within a month of starting to collect consents for the urban renewal plan. The average age of owners in this complex is in their 70s, so the process was expected to take a long time, but the legal consent requirement of 50% was met without hiring OS personnel. Mokdong 5 Complex achieved a 57% consent rate just three days after starting to collect consents for the designation of the project implementer in September. Mokdong 10 Complex was the first among Mokdong New Town apartment complexes to decide to introduce electronic voting. Apgujeong 5 District is preparing to introduce online general meetings.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government is also working to promote the activation of electronic systems through pilot projects. The city has decided to provide up to 10 million won per district to 18 cooperatives introducing electronic voting and online general meetings. Hong Eun 15 District in Seodaemun-gu, Dangsan Hyundai 3rd Complex in Yeongdeungpo-gu, and Yongsan 4 District have been selected as pilot sites.
However, service reliability still needs to be further strengthened. Yoon Eujin, CEO of EJM Company, stated, "Before electronic systems can serve to expand channels for cooperative member participation and prevent forgery and alteration, information security and system stability must be ensured," adding, "The industry is making significant investments and preparations to gain the trust of cooperative members."
Another obstacle is that cooperatives often prefer to obtain written consent for major agenda items such as the selection of construction companies, which determine the direction of the project. A reconstruction committee chairperson in Seoul commented, "When multiple agenda items are tabled at once or important decisions need to be made, there is still a strong belief that face-to-face discussions are necessary," and added, "It is burdensome to use online systems for important decision-making."
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