A proposal was raised to introduce a state-certified "urban maintenance engineer" (provisional name) to reduce social losses caused by conflicts arising during maintenance projects such as redevelopment and reconstruction.
According to the report "A study on on-site, hands-on public support in urban maintenance projects," recently published by the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) affiliate Land and Housing Institute on Feb. 2, the number of households in Seoul whose redevelopment and reconstruction projects are delayed or stalled is estimated at 153,000. Assuming an average delay of two years and an annual 3 million won financial, rental, and opportunity expense per household, the resulting social loss is about 918 billion won.
The main reasons delaying maintenance projects are disputes over increased construction costs and resulting work stoppages. For example, in Noryangjin District 6 in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, a construction contractor demanded an increase in construction costs to 219.4 billion won, citing design changes, an increase in total floor area, and rising prices, which sparked a dispute. In the end, the Seoul city government dispatched private experts, who mediated a final agreement to adjust the construction cost to about 197.6 billion won. In the case of the mega complex of 10,000 households "Olympic Park Foreon," construction was halted for about five months due to conflicts over increased reconstruction costs.
Many sites have also canceled redevelopment and reconstruction due to escalating conflicts or deteriorating profitability. According to the report, 393 areas, or 57% of all 686, that had been designated as New Towns in Seoul were later rescinded. Incidents and accidents also continue. Based on aggregated materials from prosecutors' and police investigations, there were a total of 435 incidents and accidents related to maintenance projects from July 2003 to Sept. 2023. Bribery offering was the most frequent at 127 cases (29%), followed by bribery acceptance 88 cases (20%), illegal promotion 46 cases (11%), and embezzlement 30 cases (7%). In addition, breach of trust, bid rigging, illegal promotion, and document forgery were also uncovered.
The institute argues that it is necessary to consider introducing a national qualification system for urban maintenance engineers to address these issues. A similar model is Japan's "redevelopment planner qualification system." Introduced in 1992 and converted in 2002 to a certification exam by the Redevelopment Coordinator Association, about 4,000 people currently hold qualifications as redevelopment specialists and are active. The institute said, "Japan's redevelopment coordinators are general managers who comprehensively coordinate the entire process of maintenance projects," adding, "If Korea introduces an urban maintenance engineer system, the project start rate will increase by 15–20 percentage points through reduced internal conflict, normalization of permitting systems, increased reliability of profitability analysis, and stabilization of association operations."