"Buying NPLs Cheap to Create Work and Residential Spaces" LH Explores Feasibility

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) announced on December 15 that they have selected four winning entries in an external idea contest related to LH reform.

The contest received a total of 392 entries. The LH Reform Committee selected the candidates for the awards, which were then finalized through a process of public verification. The grand prize was awarded to the idea of an "Upcycle Living Town for Young Entrepreneurs Utilizing Non-Performing Loans (NPLs)." This concept involves analyzing urban real estate-backed NPLs using artificial intelligence and data-driven methods to purchase land at low cost, then constructing public housing with workspaces on the lower floors and residential spaces for young entrepreneurs on the upper floors.

At the LH Reform Committee appointment ceremony held last August, Professor Jae-man Lim of Sejong University is delivering his remarks. Professor Lim served as co-chair alongside the First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

The top excellence award went to a regional welfare town model that integrates housing, care, and employment. This proposal envisions a welfare town where people from various backgrounds live together in public housing, receive care services, and benefit from employment and cultural spaces such as senior cafes, social cooperatives, and libraries. Two additional ideas received excellence awards: a public participation site supervision system that allows anonymous reporting of on-site safety and quality issues and automatically detects risks, and an integrated housing platform that enables users to handle housing applications, loans, and digital contracts all at once.

The award ceremony will be held on December 16 at the joint housing supply task force office of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and LH in Yongsan, Seoul. The event will be attended by Kim Itak, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Lee Sanguk, Acting President of LH, as co-chairs. To increase the feasibility of implementing the winning ideas and to connect them with LH reform, the LH Reform Committee and the award recipients have agreed to discuss directions for execution.