Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) will greatly streamline procedures to join the program to speed up securing units for newly built purchase-and-lease dwellings in the greater Seoul area.
LH said on the 25th it introduced the "simplified intake for newly built purchases and pre-review of sites" program. The step is aimed at lowering design costs and administrative burdens for individuals or corporate operators who wish to take part in the newly built purchase agreement program but lack experience.
Until now, individuals or corporations with little experience in newly built purchases found it hard to judge whether their owned sites were suitable for the program, leading to a reluctant stance toward participating in the newly built purchase-and-lease business. In particular, the burden of design costs when purchase feasibility was uncertain had been cited as a barrier to entry.
Going forward, LH will allow applications with only a brief business plan, without submitting design drawings. The business plan should cover site-related items such as access to public transit, school conditions, access to everyday amenities, and the residential environment. Land held in multiple areas can be applied for all at once through the website.
LH will form a separate "pre-review committee for sites" to determine, based on the business plan, whether a site is suitable for newly built purchases. Projects that pass the pre-review will be exempt from the existing document screening and will receive full marks on site-related items in the subsequent purchase review. However, to maintain validity, design drawings must be supplemented within one month after passing the pre-review.
Eligible applicants are individuals or corporations that own sites in the greater Seoul area where 500 or more households can be built. In regulated areas, the threshold is 200 households, and multiple cases can be combined. Idle sites created by consolidating or relocating corporate headquarters, or by relocating or closing supermarkets and factories; business sites under financial sector management using trusts, REITs, or funds; and idle sites in urban areas owned by individuals or clans are eligible. However, properties already submitted in the past three years are excluded.
LH plans to apply a fast track to volumes that pass the pre-review and seek to sign agreements within the year. Applications will be accepted through LH Subscription Plus until the 15th of next month. A business briefing session will be held on Sept. 1, and one-on-one customized consultations will be offered by reservation through Sept. 14.
Cho Kyung-sook, head of LH's Housing Welfare Division, said, "We will actively utilize high-quality land held by the private sector to ease operators' burdens and supply dwellings more swiftly for stable housing for the public."