The government is pushing to promote modular housing because it believes turning construction into a manufacturing process can shorten build times and speed up housing supply. In modular housing, 70% to 80% of major structures such as walls and bathrooms are produced in factories and then assembled on site. Because housing modules can be built in factories while foundation work and other on-site tasks proceed, the construction period can be cut by about 30%.
Despite those advantages, the domestic modular housing market has failed to grow because it has not achieved economies of scale, leaving it short on cost competitiveness. Orders have come mainly from public developers such as Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) and Gyeonggi Housing & Urban Development Corporation (GH), but volumes have been too small for manufacturers to expand production capacity or invest in advanced technology. That has prompted arguments that overhauling laws and regulations to grow the modular housing industry should take priority over immediately accelerating housing supply.
The domestic steel modular construction and housing market, which grew at an average annual rate of 35.4% from 2003 through last year, is projected to reach 2.8 trillion won ($1.9 billion) by 2030 on the back of expanded public-sector supply, according to the Korea Iron & Steel Association on the 25th. LH said on the 21st of this month that it would push to order 16,000 modular housing units by 2030, raising this year's order volume to 2,100 units from an initial target of 2,000. GH has laid out a blueprint to newly launch 1,000 modular housing units each year.
The government plans to expand the modular housing industry through various support measures, but with no official tally of the sector's current status yet, it remains unclear whether small specialized modular manufacturers can handle the government's order volumes. Even when large and mid-sized builders win modular housing contracts, the modules themselves are produced at specialized manufacturers' factories. Leading module makers include Keumkang, NRB, Yuchang E&C and Plan M, but their production capacity remains limited and the government has yet to determine their specific supply volumes. "Even if modular housing orders increase, the number of companies that can produce them is limited, so we have to examine whether they can quickly expand factory capacity and add workers," an official at one builder said. "In a modular housing market driven by the public sector, if a company relies solely on public orders and that flow becomes unstable, recovering factory investment costs could become a problem."
Large builders have also been lukewarm. They see no reason to jump in because modular housing construction costs are still about 20% to 30% higher than on-site reinforced concrete (RC) construction. GS E&C (006360) won a modular public housing project in Siheung Geomo, Gyeonggi Province, last year, but its stance is to be selective about additional orders depending on profitability. Hyundai Engineering, which completed the modular Yongin Yeongdeok Gyeonggi Happy House, also has no intention of taking on more work after halting housing orders in the wake of a safety accident.
Against that backdrop, calls are growing to quickly establish a legal and institutional foundation by enacting a special act containing deregulation and incentives for modular housing. The government said in last year's Sept. 7 housing supply measures that it would push to enact a special act on modular housing to cut construction costs, and in this year's Aug. 13 measures it promised to improve the ordering system and strengthen fiscal support through a "modular special act." But the related bills are pending in the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, delaying the support measures. The government has said the absence of a certification system for modular housing and cumbersome ordering procedures are hindering the industry's expansion, and that the public sector would serve as a catalyst in building the ecosystem by covering about 50% of the construction costs incurred beyond conventional methods — 70 million won per unit — for public housing built through 2030.
Momentum for the special act appears to be building, however, after President Lee Jae-myung asked whether modular housing can "actually shorten construction periods" and called for its expansion during an inspection of the third-phase new town site in Gyeyang, Incheon, on the 20th. Modular bills introduced in the National Assembly after coordination with the government include the Special Act on Support for Promoting Modular Construction, jointly introduced last December by Rep. Han Jun-ho of the Democratic Party of Korea and Rep. Yoon Jae-ok of the People Power Party. In June this year, Rep. Kim Jong-yang of the People Power Party introduced the Special Act on Promoting Modular Construction and Mutual Growth With Regional Small and Mid-Sized Firms, and Rep. Hwang Un-ha of the Rebuilding Korea Party introduced a Special Act on Support for Promoting Modular Construction this month. Rep. Bok Ki-wang of the Democratic Party, the ruling party's liaison on the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, said the modular special act is "one of the top legislative priorities" and that "we plan to begin bill negotiations between liaisons soon."
The most contentious part of the modular special act is the provisions on single-package bidding and integrated ordering contained in the Han-Yoon bill. Under current law, even when a builder constructs a building, electrical, telecommunications and firefighting equipment must in principle be ordered separately from specialized contractors. The modular industry has argued that productivity is maximized only when equipment installation is also carried out at the factory along with the modules, and that position was reflected in the bill. But equipment firms have strongly opposed it, saying integrated ordering would reduce them to subcontractors. "On the integrated ordering issue, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment hold different views, and we are working to reconcile the differences between ministries," a ministry official said.
The government and LH plan to continue breaking ground on modular housing for the remainder of this year to accelerate housing supply and upgrade a public-private industrial ecosystem. Public housing projects using modular construction in Siheung Geomo and Ansan Singil, Gyeonggi Province, are scheduled to break ground in December. "With quality and safety problems emerging as construction sites age and the share of foreign workers rises, modular housing is ultimately the best alternative for quickly supplying high-quality homes," a ministry official said. "We will actively encourage the private sector to expand investment in facilities and technology."