The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on the 16th that through the "pan-government support center for resolving on-site difficulties in housing supply," launched to ease challenges at dwelling construction sites, it received a total of 24 complaints over the past two weeks from 30 business sites covering about 15,000 dwellings.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said it selected four regional business sites where immediate action was possible and, at a briefing chaired in person by Minister Kim Yun-duk that afternoon, offered tailored solutions for each site.
In the meantime, the government has kept public-private channels such as the Korea Housing Constructors Association and the Korea Real Estate Board (REB) running at all times, listening to builders' difficulties. On the 9th and 11th, it gathered about 150 people, including municipal officials in the greater Seoul area and construction industry officials, held large-scale briefings, actively promoted the support center's role, and worked to collect proposals for regulatory improvements.
In the first case to receive relief measures, a mixed-use apartment site in Yongsan District, Seoul, had already received local government approval in Apr. and was at the stage of breaking ground, but with the maturity of the initial bridge loan imminent, the issuance of a guarantee by the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation (HUG) for the main project financing (PF) construction loan was urgently needed. Although it usually takes nearly two months just to issue this guarantee, the government decided to drastically shorten the document review period and help ensure the guarantee is issued within this month to prevent cash flow from being cut off and a default from occurring.
Next, an 855-dwelling apartment site in Jisan-dong, Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, is located in an old neighborhood with no recent presale complexes nearby for reference. As a result, it struggled to recruit a builder because it could not set an appropriate presale price to obtain a guarantee. The government decided to provide tailored pricing consulting through HUG and to develop within this year an appropriate presale price estimation system that automatically analyzes location conditions using artificial intelligence (AI) so that no companies face similar problems in the future.
In addition, accepting industry calls to reflect surges in raw material costs driven by the Middle East situation in presale guarantee reviews, the government created an adjustment system that adds part of the short-term increase in material costs to the guaranteed price and will apply it starting in July.
In the third and fourth cases—publicly supported private rental dwelling sites in Oryu-dong, Seoul, and Jangan-myeon, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province—construction preparations were complete, but they requested expedited deliberation on state fund equity investment to reduce interest burdens. Although applications and budgets recently piled up and delayed reviews, the government will convene a separate Fund Investment Deliberation Committee in early July to swiftly review the eligibility of these business sites and open the way for groundbreaking within this year without fail.
The remaining 20 business site complaints received mainly concerned matters requiring legal revisions, such as changes to urban planning to improve project feasibility or allowing loans secured by dwellings slated for demolition. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) will quickly issue directives on guidelines that can be changed immediately and, for proposals requiring legal amendments, will work swiftly with other ministries to set a course.
A representative of a construction company at the Yongsan District business site who attended the meeting said, "With the bridge loan maturity set for June 30, PF conversion was urgent, but with active support from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) and HUG, we can proceed to break ground without issues."
Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said, "Because the field is paramount to expanding housing supply, we will continue to hear on-the-ground voices through town hall meetings and briefings until we meet our housing supply targets, continuously refining and developing housing supply measures to ultimately stabilize the housing market," adding, "We will provide incentives to related institutions that actively cooperate in resolving on-site difficulties and to local governments whose permitting performance improves, and accelerate housing supply together with all supply-related institutions."