In the second half of this year, about 4,800 households nationwide in Newlywed Hope Towns will begin recruiting residents. Major areas in the Seoul metropolitan area, including Daebang and Gongneung in Seoul and Goyang Changneung and Bucheon Yeokgok in the third new towns, are included in the supply.
Newlywed Hope Towns are public sale and rental dwellings created with specialized childrearing and childcare environments for newlyweds, engaged couples, and single-parent families. Because they can use policy loans at lower rates than general public dwellings, they attract strong interest from actual end users.
According to the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) on the 10th, a total of 6,467 households in Newlywed Hope Towns are scheduled for supply this year. Of these, 1,650 households already finished subscriptions in April–May, and the remaining 4,817 will sequentially begin recruiting residents from the end of this month through the end of the year. An LH official said, "Recruitment notices for new supply volumes are scheduled to begin at the end of June."
The first supply will take place in Seoul and Bucheon, Gyeonggi. In Seoul, tenants will be recruited for rental-type Newlywed Hope Towns in the Daebang district (61 households) and the Gongneung district (60 households). In the Bucheon Yeokgok public housing district A2 block in Gyeonggi, 976 households of sale-type Newlywed Hope Towns will be supplied. It is the largest among the sale-type Newlywed Hope Towns to be supplied this year.
The Bucheon Yeokgok district is being developed in Chuni-dong and Yeokgok-dong, Bucheon. Yeokgok Station on Subway Line 1 and Kkachiul Station on Line 7 are each about 1.2 km away, and Onsu Station, an interchange station for Lines 1 and 7, is also accessible.
Move-ins are scheduled around June 2028. It will be supplied in a single 55-square-meter exclusive area type. At the time of the advance subscription in 2021, the sale price was about 389 million won, but considering recent increases in construction costs, the industry expects the actual sale price to be in the mid-400 million won range.
In July, resident recruitment is also planned for Goyang Changneung A-4 block (297 households, rental type), as well as Seongnam Bokjeong 2 A1 block (594 households), Siheung Geomo A5 block (290 households), and A6 block (480 households).
Eligibility to subscribe to Newlywed Hope Towns includes members of no-home households who are newlyweds within seven years of marriage, households with children age 6 or younger, engaged couples planning to marry, and single-parent families with children age 6 or younger. Income must be at or below 130% of the previous year's urban worker monthly average, and total assets must meet the threshold of 360 million won or less.
The biggest advantage of Newlywed Hope Towns is the low-interest policy loans. Through exclusive loans from the housing & urban fund, borrowers can take out 30%–70% of the dwelling price at a fixed annual rate of 1.3% for up to 30 years. However, when disposing of the dwelling or repaying the loan, a portion (10%–50%) of any capital gains must be settled with the fund.
The government is also pushing to expand the pool of eligible recipients to resolve unsold Newlywed Hope Town units. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport recently preannounced legislation to revise the enforcement rules of the Special Act on Public Housing and decided to expand residency eligibility for unsold units to single, no-home youths ages 19 to 39. The revision will be implemented after collecting opinions from June 11 to July 20.
Ko Joon-seok, a professor at Yonsei University Sangnam Institute of Management, said, "Newlywed Hope Towns are significant in that the public sector supplies newlywed dwellings at relatively affordable prices," adding, "However, it is also necessary to consider expanding supply in preferred locations with good job proximity and easing eligibility requirements so that actual end users can subscribe more easily."