Seven hundred fifty new dwellings will be supplied in the Nangok area of Gwanak District, Seoul. With a public institution directly taking charge of the entire project process, the long-delayed maintenance project is expected to gain speed and reduce the burden on residents.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on the 9th that Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) has been designated the public implementer of the Nangok A2 block street housing maintenance project in Gwanak and has fully launched the first public standalone implementation of a small-scale housing maintenance project.
The Gwanak Nangok A2 block had its redevelopment designation lifted three years after being named a redevelopment zone in 2011 due to issues such as topography and project feasibility. Since then, LH has improved viability by expanding the project area and designing to overcome terrain such as slopes, and, by being designated the public implementer of the project, has been able to proceed again.
Going forward, LH plans to swiftly carry out follow-up procedures—selecting a builder within the year and obtaining approval for the project implementation plan in 2027—to accelerate the supply of urban dwellings with a goal of breaking ground in 2028.
Small-scale housing maintenance projects are endeavors that swiftly refurbish old, low-rise areas where large-scale redevelopment or reconstruction is difficult, on a small scale (under 10,000 square meters). Although they have the advantage of faster timelines due to simplified procedures compared to redevelopment and reconstruction, some projects have been delayed because of insufficient profitability stemming from small project size and a lack of association expertise in complex rights relationships.
To overcome the limits of association-led small-scale housing maintenance projects and add expertise to maintenance projects to speed up the supply of dwellings, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) has pushed institutional improvements allowing project area expansion when the public participates, including LH (10,000 square meters → up to 40,000 square meters), and providing fund loans at low interest (2.2% for associations, 1.9% for public participation).
In addition, to vitalize small-scale housing maintenance projects, in Feb. the government also improved systems such as easing the consent rate for establishing associations and raising the acquisition price criteria for rental dwellings, aiming to promote the supply of dwellings through small-scale housing maintenance.
Kim Young-guk, head of the dwelling supply promotion headquarters at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), said, "I hope this first public standalone implementation of a small-scale housing maintenance project will be carried out successfully, leading to a second and third public standalone implementation," adding, "We will actively support institutional improvements so that public standalone implementation can take the lead in supplying dwellings within city centers."
Park Hyun-geun, head of LH's Metropolitan Area Maintenance Project Special Headquarters, said, "The Gwanak Nangok A2 block is the first case where the public standalone implementation method has been applied," adding, "We will do our best to strengthen the public role to lower the burden on residents and increase project speed, so that it becomes a new model for supplying dwellings through maintenance projects within city centers."