Gyeonggi Housing & Urban Development Corporation (GH) is pushing a project to create walkable 15-minute districts around rail stations in Gyeonggi Province, supplying housing, jobs and neighborhood public facilities at the same time. The agency plans to develop a mixed-use supply model that combines youth housing with industrial and retail space and public services, and to select two candidate sites for pilot projects that GH would carry out directly. The aim is to absorb rising demand around station areas, driven by the expansion of the metropolitan rail network, through public-led development and to make better use of those sites.
GH will soon put out a tender for a study on creating and revitalizing station-centered neighborhood districts in Gyeonggi Province, according to industry sources on the 14th.
The core idea is to link rail access to housing supply, local jobs and expanded neighborhood services. GH views major station areas as having grown more important as living hubs capable of accommodating both youth housing and industrial and commercial functions, as the metropolitan subway network, the Great Train Express (GTX) and urban rail lines have expanded. Because development conditions differ across the province's 31 cities and counties, however, the agency does not plan to apply the same development method at every station, instead dividing them into types according to their characteristics and demand.
Each district will be defined as the area reachable within a 15-minute walk from a station entrance, measured along actual pedestrian routes, road networks and terrain. In addition to stations now in operation, the study will cover stations scheduled to open that have received project plan or implementation plan approval. For each district and type, GH will examine changes in the number and movement of young adults and single-person households, along with facilities that generate demand such as industrial, office and retail buildings and universities. The agency will build a mixed-use supply model combining job space, public services and neighborhood public facilities around housing, identify facilities that local residents lack and locations with poor access, and propose directions for improving living conditions alongside housing supply.
Development methods will not be limited to creating new sites. GH will also consider redeveloping existing built-up areas, using idle space and combining public facilities into mixed-use buildings. Public parking lots, government buildings, closed schools and vacant retail and office buildings will be reviewed for use as space for neighborhood public facilities.
GH plans to make direct public implementation the default while also considering private participation and public-private cooperation depending on the nature of each project. After narrowing down priority candidate sites based on housing demand, public interest, development feasibility, the availability of publicly owned land and the prospects for cooperation with cities and counties, the agency will analyze the basic concept and business viability of two sites with the strongest potential for direct public implementation. Daegok Station in Deogyang District, Goyang, where five urban rail lines converge, is among the sites being mentioned. "It is not that we have particular project sites in mind," a GH official said. "We will determine the pilot project sites through the study."
GH previously built the Gwangju Station Area Youth Innovation Town, which combines 316 integrated public rental units with two knowledge industry center buildings, a five-minute walk from Gyeonggi Gwangju Station on the Gyeonggang Line. A "station-area mixed-use development" model, which concentrates residential, office and retail functions at metropolitan rail hubs such as GTX stations, was also included in the Gyeonggi-style housing supply strategy that Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae proposed to Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Hong Ji-sun on the 2nd of this month.
Industry observers expect the plan to follow a direction similar to the Seoul strategy for revitalizing work, housing and leisure around station areas, which the city unveiled in March. Seoul decided to convert all 325 of its station areas into mixed-use living hubs by 2031 and expanded the number of stations eligible for upzoning to commercial use from 153 to all 325. The city allows a maximum floor area ratio of 1,300% within a 500-meter radius of transfer stations and raised its supply target for long-term jeonse housing, a lease system in which tenants pay a large lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent, in station areas to 212,000 units.
The difference is that Seoul offers private developers incentives such as upzoning and eased public contribution requirements, while the GH plan is built on direct public implementation. "When the public sector takes the lead, it can speed up projects that have moved slowly because of weak profitability or conflicts within project sites," said Kim Duk-rye, head of the housing research division at the Korea Housing Industry Research Institute. "It could be a better fit for Gyeonggi Province."