Oh Se-hoon, the Seoul mayor, said on the 13th, when the government unveiled a real estate plan to add more than 230,000 homes including new housing sites in the capital region, that "it is regrettable that sufficient prior consultations with the Seoul city government were not carried out."
On social media on the day, he said this in a post titled "Expand supply sufficiently and continuously through taxes and owner-occupation!"
He said, "I am relieved that some of the items the Seoul city government has continually asked the government for, to ensure smooth promotion of redevelopment and reconstruction, were reflected in today's real estate plan," but added, "It is not desirable for the Seoul city government, which actually executes a significant portion of housing supply and maintenance projects in the field, to be virtually excluded from the policy decision process and unilaterally receive the results."
He added, "To enhance the effectiveness of real estate policy, sufficient prior consultations and close policy coordination between the government and the Seoul city government must be achieved going forward."
He also said, "Although some of the regulatory improvement items for maintenance projects proposed by the Seoul city government were reflected in this plan, core items demanded in the field—such as easing restrictions on the transfer of association members' status, easing floor area ratio regulations for private maintenance projects, and easing the ratio of rental dwellings in redevelopment—were not reflected," adding, "This measure may partly ease the bottleneck at maintenance project sites, but the difficulties on the ground cannot be fully resolved."
He went on, "For housing supply to pick up speed, deregulation must not stop at parts or remain a pretense," adding, "Bold regulatory improvements that can substantially boost project profitability on the ground and shorten project timelines must follow. We expect the remaining regulatory improvement items for maintenance projects proposed by the Seoul city government to be accepted swiftly."
He said, "Above all, what is most important is that, for the measures announced today to be truly effective in the market, a forward-looking review of the government's overall real estate policy, including the tax reform plan announced on Aug. 3, is needed," adding, "In particular, a policy overly fixated on 'owner-occupation' that in effect restricts even the people's freedom of movement should no longer continue."
He said, "Given that various circumstances exist in reality, defining and judging every exception for owner-occupation is not easy in itself," adding, "A patchwork prescription of tacking on exceptions whenever problems arise will only heighten market confusion."
He added, "A full review of the 'owner-occupation obsession policy' is the first step to easing the instability in the lease market and the jeonse and wolse turmoil now unfolding," and said, "We urge that, taking this government measure as an opportunity, the policy's center of gravity be shifted more clearly from 'taxes and owner-occupation' to 'sufficient and continuous expansion of supply.'"
He also said, "Although lifting greenbelt protections is the government's authority, I remain unchanged in my view that damaging green space should be the last resort," adding, "Even if only the maintenance projects currently planned by the Seoul city government proceed normally, 310,000 dwellings can be supplied by 2031. Even with effective methods for housing supply right before us, we should be cautious about approaches that begin by damaging precious green space that must be passed down to future generations."