New Year's Press Briefing by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
Kim Yoonduk, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, stated on the 12th regarding follow-up measures to the September 7 Housing Supply Expansion Plan, "We are working to finalize and announce it by the end of January at the latest," adding, "We are in the final stages of discussions with government ministries and local governments."
At the New Year's press meeting with the reporters that day, Minister Kim explained, "We are searching for candidate sites, and while we have a general plan regarding the scale and approach, we need to finalize and refine the details." Previously, the government announced in the September 7 measures that it would supply 1.35 million housing units in the Seoul metropolitan area by 2030.
The government had presented a blueprint for expanding public-led projects through organizations such as Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), redeveloping aging public rental housing, and utilizing public office buildings. However, there was criticism that the effectiveness of the supply measures was limited due to the lack of specific sites or regions. As a result, follow-up measures including detailed areas and project sites were originally scheduled to be announced last year. Since the process has been delayed compared to the initial schedule, the market is closely watching when the measures will be released.
Kim Yoonduk, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, is speaking at the press corps New Year's meeting on the 12th. Provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
Minister Kim said, "Originally, we planned to make the announcement soon after returning from a business trip to the United States, but it was delayed somewhat due to overlapping work reports from public institutions." He added, "The difference from previous plans is that, rather than the usual land development format, we intend to increase supply by developing idle land and aging government office sites in the metropolitan area, and to provide high-quality housing that meets the changing needs of the public."
High-quality housing refers to improving the standard of living by supplying homes with good locations, such as near subway stations, or providing public rental housing with a certain minimum living space. Regarding calls from some quarters to abolish the reconstruction excess profit recovery system or to further relax floor area ratio regulations in order to stimulate private redevelopment projects, he said, "We are monitoring market conditions, but we have not internally reviewed these proposals." He also drew a clear line, stating that there have been no discussions so far about partially lifting regulations in areas such as land transaction permit zones.
Kim Yoonduk, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, is speaking at the CES participating companies meeting on the 7th (local time). Provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
From the perspective of future growth, support for autonomous driving technology development and urban air mobility (UAM) infrastructure have also been set as key focus areas for this year. Regarding autonomous driving, he noted that during his recent business trip to the United States, he observed a significant gap between local technology and operational levels and those in Korea. "This year, we will operate a demonstration city in Gwangju with 200 vehicles, aiming for Level 4 commercialization by 2027," he said. "For UAM, although we initially targeted commercialization last year, it has been postponed to 2028. We are also considering a strategy in which we directly participate in and advance the development of aircraft technology."
Regarding the overseas transfer of high-precision maps, he pointed out that Google does not have servers in Korea, whereas Apple does. He said, "If discussions with Apple proceed proactively and are well organized, I believe this could be expanded to other cases as well, so talks with Apple are important." As for the organizational reform plan to be proposed by the LH Reform Committee, he predicted that, due to the volume of content, it would require additional review and thus take more time.
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