[Exclusive] Land Ministry Launches 'Housing Supply Task Force'... 77-Member Team to Accelerate Execution (Comprehensive)

Establishment of the Housing Supply Promotion Headquarters
Partial Amendment of the Enforcement Rules for Organizational Structure Announced
Upgraded to Director-Level Organization
Temporary Operation Until the End of 2028
Integration of Dispe

The government will establish a dedicated “Housing Supply Promotion Headquarters” comprised of 77 members to oversee housing supply functions. This measure aims to enhance the execution of policies such as the “September 7 Measures,” which pledged to supply 1.35 million housing units in the Seoul metropolitan area by 2030. This comes two months after Kim Yoonduk, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, mentioned the establishment of the headquarters during the National Assembly audit in October.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on December 18, a revised enforcement regulation for the organizational structure, which includes the temporary operation of the new headquarters until the end of 2028, was announced for legislative notice on December 16. The new headquarters will be based on the existing “Public Housing Promotion Team,” which operated at the director-general level, but will be significantly upgraded to a first-grade (director-level) organization by absorbing all housing supply functions, including the management of the first-generation new towns, which were previously dispersed.

Consolidating Dispersed Supply Organizations... Temporary Operation Until 2028

The newly established headquarters will include a Director of Housing Supply Policy and a Director of Housing Maintenance Policy, with a total of nine departments. Under the Director of Housing Supply Policy, there will be the Housing Supply Policy Department, Public Land Planning Department, Public Land Management Department, Urban Housing Policy Department, Urban Housing Support Department, and the Public Land Support Department, which is an autonomous body established under the authority of the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The functions of coordinating annual public housing supply plans and amending relevant laws, which were previously handled by the Public Housing Policy Department under the Director of Housing Welfare Policy, will be transferred to the Housing Supply Policy Department to accelerate the pace of supply execution.

Functions related to redevelopment projects will be consolidated under the Director of Housing Maintenance Policy. The Housing Maintenance Department of the Housing and Land Office, and the Urban Maintenance Planning Department and New Town Maintenance Cooperation Department of the National Land and Urban Office, will be reorganized into the New Town Maintenance Planning Department, New Town Maintenance Support Department, and Housing Maintenance Policy Department.

On the other hand, the Housing Construction Supply Department will not be transferred to the headquarters, but will remain within the Housing and Land Office and will be renamed the Construction Operations Department. As a result, the new headquarters will be reborn as a large-scale organization with a total of nine departments (including one autonomous body). This is more than double the size of the previous Public Housing Promotion Team, which had four departments under a director-general.

The status of the organization will also be strengthened. The new head of the Housing Supply Promotion Headquarters will be a first-grade (director-level) senior official, whereas the previous Public Housing Promotion Team was led by a second-grade (deputy director-level) official. This position will be equivalent in status to the Director of the Housing and Land Office or the Director of the National Land and Urban Office, which are key posts within the ministry. A ministry official stated, “While the Housing and Land Office oversees general market management and policy, the new headquarters is a dedicated organization created to manage performance based on supply volume and achieve the government’s supply targets. It is an execution-oriented organization designed to fully implement government supply measures such as the September 7 Measures within the current administration’s term, going beyond simply formulating policy.”

The headquarters will be staffed by 70 members, combining the existing 18 regular staff with 52 temporary positions added through this organizational revision. Including the seven staff assigned to the autonomous Public Land Support Department, a total of 77 members will be dedicated to housing supply work.

The Key Is Speed... Three Major Tasks: Accelerating Public Land Development, Urban Supply, and Redevelopment Projects

Kim Yoonduk, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, is answering questions from the press at the 'Ministry of Land and LH Joint Housing Supply Task Force' and the 'LH Special Housing Supply Promotion Headquarters Plaque Ceremony' held last month on the 20th at the headquarters of HJ Heavy Industries Construction Division in Galwol-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Minister Kim instructed to transform the organizational structure of the Ministry of Land and LH into an emergency housing supply system and to mobilize all available resources. Photo by Yonhap News.

With the significant expansion of the dedicated housing supply organization, the core competency the new headquarters must now demonstrate is execution speed. The most urgent task is to accelerate the timetable for public land development. Through the September 7 Measures, the ministry pledged to eliminate delays caused by land compensation and permitting processes and to shorten project timelines by more than two years, enabling the early supply of 46,000 housing units by 2030. This includes a commitment to supply 32,000 units, including those in the third-generation new towns, by 2026 without delay. In particular, Minister Kim has repeatedly emphasized the goal of selling units in the Seocho Seoripul District in 2029 and commencing construction in the Gwacheon District in Gyeonggi Province.

Increasing the volume of urban housing starts will also be a major task, though it remains a challenging one. Targets have been set for 23,000 units of reconstruction of aging public rental housing, mixed-use development of old public office sites, and the utilization of unused school land and idle sites, but the interests involved are complex, making it easy for projects to stall on the ground. This is why, when the Ministry of Land and Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) launched a joint task force last month, they emphasized “rapid decision-making and on-site responsiveness.” The headquarters will engage in “on-site coordination,” identifying and immediately resolving bottlenecks at each stage from site discovery to permitting, construction start, and completion.

The pace of redevelopment projects must also be increased. The government has decided to abolish the sunset clause for public urban complex projects and expand floor area ratio incentives. For the redevelopment of aging planned cities, such as first-generation new towns, the system will be revised to allow for prompt implementation with resident consent. For private redevelopment projects, the government has pledged to simplify procedures and reduce project timelines by up to three years.

However, accelerating the supply pace requires legislative support. Although the government has stated that it is implementing follow-up measures, including 20 legislative tasks, critics note that tangible progress has been slow even two months after the announcement of the September 7 Measures. Of the 20 tasks, only about half have been submitted to the National Assembly.

Construction Site Compliance Monitoring Team Upgraded to Official Department... Crackdown on Illegal Subcontracting Strengthened

The revised enforcement regulation also includes measures to strengthen the organization responsible for cracking down on illegal subcontracting. The previously temporary “Construction Site Compliance Monitoring Team” will be expanded and reorganized into the “Fair Construction Support Department” within the Construction Policy Bureau, enhancing its enforcement capabilities. The team will consist of seven members, an increase from the previous five, with two additional staff at the fifth and sixth grade levels. The department head position will be upgraded from a dual-grade (fourth or fifth grade) to a fourth-grade official.

Nine dedicated inspection personnel (five at the sixth grade, four at the seventh grade) will be newly assigned to the regional offices of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. With the addition of these staff, regional offices, which previously had no dedicated inspection personnel, will now be able to conduct regular on-site inspections. Until now, the 17 inspection staff at the five regional offices in Seoul, Wonju, Daejeon, Iksan, and Busan were all temporary, non-regular positions.

Additionally, four special judicial police personnel will be added in the real estate sector, and a new “Underground Safety Team” will be established under the Technical Safety Policy Division of the Construction Policy Bureau to systematically respond to ground subsidence (sinkhole) incidents that have recently occurred in areas such as Myeongil-dong, Seoul. The new Underground Safety Team will be operated with a total of five staff, combining two additional personnel with existing members.

The Overseas Urban Development Strategy Planning Team will be dissolved, and its functions will be integrated into the Overseas Construction Support Department. The temporary staffing period for four members assigned to the Smart City National Pilot City construction project will be extended by two years until February 2028. The duration for the Housing Lease Planning Team and the Aviation Qualification International Cooperation Team, both established under the total labor cost system, will also be extended by two years until the end of 2027.

The revised enforcement regulation will take effect from the date of promulgation. The regulations related to the establishment of the Underground Safety Team will take effect on January 2 of next year.