Prime Minister Han Seong-sook again stressed the need to speed up private-sector redevelopment and reconstruction projects.
Han visited the Yeongtong District 1 redevelopment site in Maetan-dong, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on the 13th to review progress and hosted a roundtable with experts on accelerating private redevelopment projects. It was the sixth site the prime minister has visited in person since the Aug. 13 housing supply measures were announced. Demolition work is under way at the Yeongtong District 1 project, which is targeting a groundbreaking before the end of the year.
Under a planned revision to the Act on the Improvement of Urban Areas and Residential Environments, a follow-up to the Sept. 7 measures, Yeongtong District 1 would be able to sell public-contribution rental units at 80% of the basic construction cost, instead of at the current standardized construction cost (a lower benchmark). Officials expect the change to improve project economics. After receiving the briefing, Han instructed officials to "actively publicize the various government policies already in place so that private redevelopment sites are aware of them, and to attend carefully to the details so that they provide real help during the course of these projects."
At the expert roundtable on accelerating private redevelopment, participants discussed the current status of support for improvement projects under the Aug. 13 measures and ways to speed up project timelines. "The private sector has accounted for more than 80% of housing construction starts in the greater Seoul area over the past three years, so the swift execution of private redevelopment and reconstruction projects is critical to expanding housing supply," Han said. "These projects struggle to gain speed because of complex approval procedures and conflicts among stakeholders, so we must work to actively remove the obstacles standing in their way and ensure they lead to prompt groundbreakings."