The government plans to supply 17,881 homes at 11 major residential sites in Seoul, including the Gangnam-area districts of Seocho and Songpa, through its urban public housing complex program. On the 30th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced new candidate sites for the program, many of them in prime locations: the area in front of Hyochang Park Station in Yongsan District (4,040 homes), Yeomchang Station in Mok-dong, Yangcheon District (4,222 homes), Isu Station in Bangbae-dong, Seocho District (918 homes), and the area near Olympic Park in Bangi-dong, Songpa District (935 homes). The move follows the Aug. 13 policy package, which laid out plans to break ground on 51,000 homes under the program, and resumes candidate site selection for the first time in three years after it was suspended in 2023. The ministry is moving quickly, saying it will hold resident briefings as early as October, designate the sites in the first half of 2027 and begin construction in the second half of 2030.
The urban public housing complex program develops aging urban areas under the lead of public agencies such as the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH). To speed up housing supply, it skips procedures such as setting up an association and drawing up a management disposition plan, and it grants additional incentives including higher floor area ratios than private redevelopment projects allow. With housing insecurity at an extreme — Seoul apartment prices rose for an 85th consecutive week as of the third week of September, the longest streak on record, and jeonse (a Korean lease system requiring a large lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent) and monthly-rent listings for Seoul apartments fell 16% over the past year — a supply blitz that mobilizes every available tool is not a choice but a necessity. At a Cabinet meeting the previous day, President Lee Jae-myung said "the fate of the nation" depends on housing supply and urged officials to "be prepared to lie flat on the ground to deliver supply quickly," remarks that conveyed a sense of urgency about resolving worsening public sentiment on real estate through supply measures.
Still, the program is only at the starting line. After the candidate sites are chosen, it will be important to carry out follow-up steps without a hitch, including securing resident consent, designating the districts and approving project plans. Introduced in 2021, the program has moved so slowly that not a single site has yet broken ground. What is more, a lopsided supply strategy that leans only on public-led construction can go only so far in stabilizing the property market. Private supply accounts for 87.5% of new housing in Seoul, and unless it picks up, the supply blitz will remain an empty slogan. If the government is serious about an all-out supply drive, its first task is to open the way for private supply by easing the rules that choke private redevelopment — raising floor area ratios for redevelopment and rebuilding projects and shortening permit reviews.
