Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) is expected to expand the supply volume of modular dwellings introduced in public dwellings. After completing only a total of about 700 households across public and private projects through last year, it plans to supply a total of 15,000 households—5,000 households annually—from this year through 2030.
Modular dwellings are homes assembled on-site by transporting module spaces such as premanufactured rooms, kitchens, and living rooms from a factory. About 70% of the structure is manufactured in advance at a factory, then directly assembled and installed on-site. As a result, it can significantly reduce noise, dust, construction waste, and even carbon emissions, earning a reputation as an eco-friendly building technology. It is also expected to shorten construction periods, ease labor shortages at construction sites, and reduce safety accidents and carbon emissions.
In particular, as LH has placed emphasis on expanding private-participation projects, not only large builders but also small and mid-sized builders are showing strong interest in LH modular dwelling projects to be pursued as private-participation projects going forward.
According to the construction industry on the 17th, LH approved the "Goheung Doyang senior welfare dwellings construction project (private participation) project plan" on the 7th. The project operators are a consortium of Godeok General Construction, a small and mid-sized builder, and NRB, and the project cost is 44.46018 billion won. Of that amount, 15.89729 billion won is to be supported by the housing & urban fund.
This project is a plan to build a 15-story-at-maximum, one-building, 150-household apartment and ancillary/welfare facilities as a welfare facility for seniors on a 6,798-square-meter site at 1164-1, Yongjeong-ri, Doyang-eup, Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do.
On the same day, LH also approved the "Wando Jungdo senior welfare dwellings construction project (private participation) project plan." Likewise, the consortium of Godeok General Construction and NRB was selected as the project operator, and the project cost is 28.9677 billion won, of which 8.64280 billion won will be supported by the housing & urban fund.
The Wando Jungdo senior welfare dwellings construction project will build a 14-story-at-maximum, one-building, 190-household apartment and ancillary/welfare facilities on 6,873 square meters at 760-1, Jungdo-ri, Wando-eup, Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do.
Earlier, in Dec. last year, GS Engineering and Construction won the bid for LH's "Siheung Geomo A-1BL integrated private-participation public dwellings construction project," the tallest steel modular apartment in the country. Located at A-1BL within the Siheung Geomo public dwelling district in Geomo-dong, Siheung, the project consists of six buildings totaling 801 households. Of these, 529 households will be built using the conventional reinforced concrete (RC) method, while the remaining 272 households will be built as steel modular dwellings. The country's tallest 14-story apartment using steel modular construction is expected to be built here, surpassing the current domestic record of the 13-story Yongin Yeongdeok Gyeonggi Happy Dwellings.
LH introduced modular dwellings into public dwelling private-participation projects starting in provincial areas and Gyeonggi. The construction industry is eyeing modular dwellings as a new revenue source. The view is that if future modular dwelling orders expand, new business development will be possible based on the stability of public projects.
Since 2016, over 10 years, LH has pursued modular dwelling construction projects totaling 2,261 households across 12 districts, including its own construction, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) demonstrations, and commissioned projects. Of these, through last year it completed 768 modular dwellings across six districts.
Currently, modular dwelling projects totaling 1,493 households are underway across six districts. Publicly commissioned projects include ▲ Sejong 5-1 L5 (450 households) ▲ Uiwang Chopyeong A4 (381 households) ▲ Buyeo Dongnam (150 households), while private-participation projects include ▲ Siheung Geomo A-1 (274 households) ▲ Goheung Doyang (150 households) ▲ Wando Jungdo (90 households).
LH has set a goal of supplying a total of 15,000 households as modular dwellings—5,000 households annually—from this year through 2030. This is 2,000 households more than the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's goal, announced in 2023, of supplying 3,000 modular dwellings annually by 2030.
Until now, many in the construction industry argued that the modular dwelling market was limited to one-off small orders, making it difficult to achieve "economies of scale." However, as LH decided to expand private-participation modular dwelling supply starting this year, industry expectations are growing.
A source at a major builder said, "It is very welcome from the industry's perspective that the government and LH have presented a concrete roadmap and pledged to expand the supply of modular dwellings," adding, "Only when expanded order volumes for modular dwellings are in place can we lower construction unit costs and secure economic feasibility."
On the other hand, considering the high upfront investment and technical specificity of modular dwellings, there were also views that institutional improvements should proceed in parallel, such as preparing cost estimation standards dedicated to modular construction, reflecting realistic construction costs, and expanding incentives.
A construction industry source said, "The construction costs the government budgets for modular dwelling work are about 30% to 35% higher than for general construction, but when mid- to large-sized builders actually do the work, they need to be paid about 40% more for the business to be viable," adding, "Fundamentally, for steel-structure modular dwelling construction, just the additional rebar costs are about 16% higher than general construction, and when you add ancillary expenses, the expense to do the construction is about 40% higher."