As the dwellings market, overheated by the Oct. 15 real estate measures, has paused to catch its breath, the government is reviewing the supply of new housing sites in the greater Seoul area that can drive large-scale supply. It will also prepare an incentive system to expedite resident compensation and site development for public housing sites such as the Seoripul district and the Gwacheon district.
The reason the government is sending this signal of dwellings supply to the market is concern that the dwellings market could overheat again without practical supply measures. Market watchers also noted that concrete expansion of dwellings supply must backstop the market for stabilization.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 21st, the ministry has begun a thorough review of creating new housing sites capable of supplying 30,000 dwellings. The reason for pulling the new housing-site card is that, amid a shortage of land to supply dwellings within the city center, it allows for large-scale creation of dwellings at once. The ministry is said to have finished preparations to the level that it can announce dwellings supply through new housing sites if necessary. A ministry official said, "We are preparing so that we can execute at any time."
This new housing-site supply is part of the Aug. 8 dwellings supply plan that the ministry released last year. At the time, the ministry released that it would lift green belt restrictions to create new housing sites and supply a total of 80,000 dwellings. As a follow-up, in November last year it said it would supply 50,000 dwellings across four districts: Seoripul in Seoul, Goyang Daegok station area, Uiwang Ojeon-Wanggok, and Uijeongbu Yonghyeon. New housing sites to supply the remaining 30,000 dwellings were slated for announcement in the first half of this year, but with the change of administration, this policy was changed to "under review."
Although the new administration's dwellings supply plan was released by the previous administration, as supply shortages materialized it included in both the Sept. 6 dwellings supply plan and the Oct. 15 real estate measures a review of creating new housing sites for 30,000 dwellings.
Along with this, the ministry will also accelerate the creation of new housing sites such as the Seoripul district and the Gwacheon district that it previously announced. It will move up the Seoripul district designation plan from June to March next year.
To speed up land compensation for the third-phase new towns, an "cooperation incentive" will be paid as an additional charge to landowners who proactively cooperate with compensation. The ministry is reportedly reviewing an incentive at the level of adding 5% to 7%. A ministry official said, "(The regulation for paying incentives) requires legal amendments, so we are working on it."
Even if not a large-scale dwellings supply, the ministry is also accelerating projects that can supply dwellings within the city center. It is pushing deregulation of public urban complex development projects and complex developments of aging public office buildings to promote dwellings supply throughout the city center.
The reason the ministry is sending such an expansion signal for supply to the market is to stabilize the dwellings market. The government briefly cooled the market's overheating with the Oct. 15 measures, but if the shortage of dwellings supply in the greater Seoul area, including Seoul, becomes a reality, the dwellings market could again become unstable.
According to apartment occupancy data jointly surveyed by the Korea Real Estate Board (KREB) and Real Estate R114, the number of apartments scheduled for occupancy in Seoul in 2026 is 28,885 dwellings. This is about a 20% decrease from the average occupancy of 35,797 dwellings over the past 10 years (2014–2023).
Market participants also see that without implementing dwellings supply measures, panic buying in the real estate market could recur. Jeon Ji-hun, a research fellow at Korea Ratings, said, "For fundamental stability in the dwellings market, it appears necessary to support actual supply expansion in the greater Seoul area through the prompt implementation of measures such as expanding dwellings supply."