The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 23rd that it plans to improve the construction permit, start, and completion statistics aggregation methods of the construction administration system (Seumteo) to enhance the accuracy of building statistics.
This improvement plan was prepared to address the issues identified during the internal quality diagnosis process of overall construction statistics, triggered by the national approval of completion statistics last year. It was derived through consultations with an expert task force (TF) and the Korean Statistical Office.
To improve the accuracy of construction statistics, the timing of statistics aggregation will be adjusted so that delayed input and changes after the fact, such as design changes and permit cancellations, can be maximally reflected in the statistics. The published statistics will be finalized by reflecting the changes afterward.
Until now, construction statistics (permits, starts, completions) were aggregated based on the end of each month. However, there was a problem where the amount entered late by local government officials into Seumteo after the aggregation timing was not reflected, leading to statistical errors that ranged from 0.08% to 0.44% of the total amount.
To address this issue, the monthly aggregation timing for construction statistics will be adjusted from the end of each month to the 7th of the following month. The timing for the publication of monthly construction permit, start, and completion statistics will also change from the 20th of the following month to the end of the following month.
To reflect changes such as design modifications and permit cancellations that occur after the publication of construction statistics, the published statistics will be adjusted to correct for changes the following year, enhancing the reliability of the statistics.
The scope of aggregates included in building statistics will also be expanded. Previously, building statistics only aggregated and provided permit information processed in Seumteo according to the Building Act, Dwelling Act, and Urban and Residential Environment Improvement Act.
Additionally, the data on vacant homes and small-scale housing management under the Special Act will systematically be verified based on currently piloted data, and after consultations with relevant agencies, it is planned to be reflected in construction statistics from next year.
The issues identified with the statistics aggregation program of Seumteo through consultations with the expert TF will also be addressed. Problems were found where the construction start statistics did not reflect the amounts from urban and residential environment improvement projects, and the aggregation system will be improved immediately.
For construction completion statistics, issues were found in which the total number of buildings and total floor area were counted when there were multiple buildings on a single site upon partial occupancy approval, and the total amount was redundantly aggregated upon complete occupancy approval; these will be corrected immediately.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will promptly address the issues identified through its internal diagnosis and the operation of the expert TF and states that it plans to aggregate under the improved criteria from the construction statistics since December of last year and publish them later this month through the Korean Statistical Information Service.
To ensure continuity of the statistics, past statistics, aggregated and published through Seumteo since 2013, will be sequentially improved according to the new criteria and published by the first half of next year.