"60,000 Homes to Be Supplied": Five Months Later, Where Do We Stand?

[Anchor]

The real estate market in the Seoul metropolitan area, which seemed to be cooling down, is showing signs of heating up again. Many are calling for tangible supply measures to be realized as quickly as possible.

Reporter Lee Seonghun checked the sites to see if the government's promised plan to "supply 60,000 homes in the metropolitan area" is progressing properly.

[Reporter]

This is the Yongsan International Business District, considered a key project site for the metropolitan supply plan.

The government's vision is to introduce not only international business and commercial functions but also a large number of residential units to the 450,000-square-meter site of the former railway maintenance depot near Yongsan Station.

The government is pushing to supply 10,000 homes on this site.

On the other hand, the Seoul Metropolitan Government maintains that 8,000 units is the appropriate scale, leading to ongoing disagreements over the supply volume.

More than four months have passed since the announcement of the plan to begin construction in 2028, but even the number of units to be built has not been finalized.

As a result, there is a sense on the ground that it is difficult to feel any changes.

[Jeong Seong-tae / Real Estate Agent in Yongsan-gu, Seoul: As the start of construction is delayed, local governments or the central government might change, right? Policies could also change. I think it is important to proceed quickly.]

The Taereung Golf Course has the second-largest supply scale in Seoul.

The plan is to supply 6,800 homes with the goal of starting construction in 2030.

[Jo Myeong-dong / Resident of Nowon-gu, Seoul: (The golf course) was maintained for vested interests, so I think it should be abolished, and it would be good to build apartments there. If it is for the sake of young people's housing and rental apartments, and for the citizens of Seoul, it would be good for them to come in.]

However, hurdles such as the World Heritage Impact Assessment remain, and there is significant opposition from residents.

[Resident of Nowon-gu, Seoul: If apartments are built here, the traffic will be no joke. It is extremely congested. It is indescribably busy during rush hours, and that is not even mentioning the weekends.]

I visited another key project site, Gwacheon.

The government is pushing to supply 9,800 homes on the condition of relocating the Seoul Racecourse Park and the Defense Security Support Command located here.

However, opposition from the Gwacheon city government and some citizens remains strong, and significant friction is expected.

The opposition party mayor, who made a campaign promise to prevent the relocation of the Racecourse Park, was successfully re-elected.

[Real Estate Agent in Gwacheon: The 3rd new town project is already bringing in 10,000 households, so if another 10,000 are added, what will happen to the traffic problems? So I think it will take quite a long time.]

While the government can legally push for public housing projects, securing access roads and expanding sewage treatment facilities require consultations with local governments.

Currently, a significant number of project sites remain at the stage of licensing or local government consultation.

[Ko Jong-wan / Director of the Korea Asset Management Institute: To increase the speed of housing supply, it is necessary to exclude political interests and operate a regular policy consultative body between the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and local governments to monitor the government's supply measures.]

President Lee Jae-myung recently stated in a press conference that he would soon announce real estate tax, finance, and supply measures together, and attention is focused on whether supplementary measures will be presented to increase the feasibility of the existing supply plans.

(Video Editing: Lee Sang-min, VJ: Jeong Han-wook)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.