Prime Minister Han Seong-sook is visiting housing construction sites every week to accelerate the country's housing supply drive. The move follows President Lee Jae-myung's instruction to "make an all-out effort," and reflects a decision to place housing supply at the top of the prime minister's agenda and monitor progress directly.
Han plans to visit housing supply sites weekly for the time being to check on progress, the Prime Minister's Office said on the 4th. She will also review the pace of housing supply with a rapid-supply review team inside the office and report progress at Cabinet meetings each month.
Han has visited a housing supply site every week for three consecutive weeks since last month. On the 19th of last month, she went to the Incheon Gyeyang district, one of the third-phase new towns, and on the 29th she visited the Jangwi District 14 redevelopment site in Seoul's Seongbuk-gu. On the 4th, she toured a site in Seoul's Dongdaemun-gu where the government is buying newly built urban-lifestyle housing. Notably, her visits have covered both public and private supply sites.
She also met with the heads of Seoul's 21 district offices on the 21st of last month and asked for their cooperation in expanding housing supply. On the 4th, she held talks with the housing construction and development industry to hear proposals on regulations.
A government-wide framework has also been put in place to speed up housing supply. The most prominent example is the government-wide housing rapid-supply review meeting, chaired by Han and created last month. It is designed to work closely with working-level meetings, a housing rapid-supply review team within the Office for Government Policy Coordination, and on-site support from the rapid-supply innovation unit and the fast-track permit support center, both led by the first vice minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Han plans to convene the inter-agency review meetings frequently and focus on removing obstacles that slow supply, such as permits and financial support. At a housing rapid-supply review meeting on the 14th of last month, she declared that she would "place the housing supply situation at the top of the prime minister's agenda." At a Cabinet meeting on the 1st, when Lee urged that the government "make an all-out effort on the supply side under the prime minister's direction," Han said she would "do her best with her job on the line."
"Each housing supply site has different characteristics and different difficulties, so there is a lot to keep track of," an official at the Prime Minister's Office said, adding that "the site visits will continue for the time being."
