It was analyzed that nearly 300 construction-related regulatory bills have emerged since June last year, when the 22nd National Assembly's session began. That amounts to pouring out 20 regulatory bills every month. During the same period, bills to abolish or ease regulations totaled only 69.
This runs counter to the Lee Jae-myung administration repeatedly saying it would boldly eliminate unnecessary regulations. Some also argue that, to prevent excessive regulation-related legislation, regulatory reviews should be strengthened in the legislative process to check in advance whether regulations are truly necessary, and that post-implementation reviews should be conducted after regulations take effect.
According to the construction industry on the 26th, a forum on "measures to boost vitality in the construction and dwellings market" will be held on Dec. 3 at the Construction Hall in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul. At the event, Center Director Jeon Young-jun of the Korea Research Institute for Construction Policy will present "measures to improve overlapping regulations on construction companies and excessive penalties," which will include an announcement on the status of construction-related regulations in the 22nd National Assembly.
According to the analysis in "measures to improve overlapping regulations on construction companies and excessive penalties," major bills related to the construction industry that were proposed or pre-announced for legislation from June last year, when the 22nd National Assembly was launched, through last month totaled 607. Proposal refers to the act of submitting a bill to the National Assembly, and a legislative pre-announcement is the procedure of notifying the main contents in advance of the enactment, revision, or repeal of a bill to gather public opinion.
Of the bills that were proposed or pre-announced for legislation, 276 (45.4%) created new regulations where none existed or further strengthened existing regulations. That amounts to pouring out 20 regulations every month.
By month, 34 regulation-related bills appeared in September, the most. This was right after August, when President Lee Jae-myung rebuked POSCO E&C for consecutive fatal accidents and told officials to find and report every legally possible measure, including revoking its construction license and banning it from public bidding. In Aug. 2024, 31 regulatory bills also emerged, and more than 20 regulatory bills were proposed or pre-announced in Nov. 2024 (29) and Oct. 2025 (24).
By contrast, only 69 bills in the 22nd National Assembly contained provisions to abolish or ease regulations related to the construction industry. The Korea Research Institute for Construction Policy projected that, at the current pace, 800 regulatory bills will have emerged by May 2028, when the 22nd National Assembly ends.
Regulations related to the supply of dwellings, which the government is focusing on, also exceeded 200. An analysis by the Korea Research Institute for Construction Policy of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's National Archives found that a total of 284 regulations must be met to build multifamily dwellings. By stage, land use and site development accounted for 116, the most, followed by ▲ architectural review and project approval (112) ▲ groundbreaking and sales approval (46) ▲ and 10 items requiring prior consultation. To build multifamily dwellings, developers had to clear more than four times as many regulatory hurdles as for factory establishment regulations (68).
Meanwhile, there is also an opinion that the regulatory review by the Regulatory Reform Commitee should be strengthened to curb excessive regulations. Currently, bills proposed by lawmakers are not subject to the committee's review; only bills proposed by the government are reviewed. Because of this, government ministries often ask lawmakers to propose bills to avoid review, and such requests are frequently accepted in practice. For this reason, even if a lawmaker proposes a bill, it should be included in the scope of prior regulatory review.
Jeon Young-jun, a center director at the Korea Research Institute for Construction Policy, said, "The scope of regulatory legislative review should include lawmakers' bills (so that unnecessary regulations do not pass)," and noted, "So-called commissioned legislation is increasing, in which lawmakers submit bills at the request of the government, while lawmakers' bills are not subject to regulatory review." Jeon added, "Even after regulatory bills take effect, post-evaluations should assess whether the regulations are achieving their purpose and whether they are unnecessary."
Since its launch, the Lee Jae-myung administration has repeatedly said it is working to eliminate unnecessary regulations. On June 13, at the Yongsan presidential office, the president held a meeting with six major business organizations and corporate leaders and said he was "thinking of boldly clearing out unnecessary regulations for administrative convenience," expressing an intention to focus on rationalizing regulations. At the third meeting of the emergency economic task force (TF) on July 30, he also said, "We will try to resolve or abolish as much as possible those regulations that are for administrative convenience, outdated, unnecessary, or not strictly necessary," and emphasized, "Through rationalizing regulations, we will move quickly so corporations can carry out creative activities."