Yoon calls for lower bar for urban redevelopment projects

President Yoon Suk Yeol said guidelines for selecting redevelopment projects, which currently gauge safety risks, must change to prioritize housing depreciation to prevent residents' living conditions from deteriorating.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, speaks with a senior citizen who lives alone in a multiunit house in Jungnang District, eastern Seoul, on Thursday, to provide winter supplies amid freezing temperatures this week. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

President Yoon Suk Yeol stressed the need to overhaul the eligibility criteria for redevelopment and reconstruction projects as he met with residents at a "Moa Town" small-scale housing maintenance management site in eastern Seoul on Thursday.

Yoon said guidelines for selecting redevelopment projects, which currently gauge safety risks, must change to prioritize housing depreciation to prevent residents' living conditions from deteriorating.

"Currently, to carry out reconstruction and redevelopment, one must first undergo a safety inspection of the existing house and acknowledge its risks before starting the project," Yoon said in a dialogue with some dozen residents from Jungnang District. "This results in a laughable situation where people hope their house becomes dangerous. In the future, the criteria for starting redevelopment and reconstruction projects should be completely changed from being [risk-based] to age-based."

In turn, Yoon urged reexamining redevelopment and reconstruction project procedures from scratch so that more housing can be supplied in the city.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, center, speaks with residents of the neighborhood during a visit to the city government’s “Moa Town” urban regeneration project site in Jungnang District, eastern Seoul, on Thursday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Earlier on Thursday, Yoon visited the Moa Town site in Jungnang's Junghwa 2-dong to check the conditions of the aged residential area, accompanied by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong.

The Seoul city government's Moa Town urban regeneration project aims to overhaul old low-rise dwellings that are otherwise difficult to redevelop on a large scale because they do not meet standard requirements.

Essentially, the initiative is a small-scale housing maintenance project where homeowners within the designated area collect individually owned land to refresh a deteriorated residential area and jointly develop quality housing in blocks with shared facilities and infrastructure, which allow for systematic management similar to apartment complexes.

In his opening remarks at the meeting with residents and experts, Yoon noted that over half of all homes in Seoul are at least 20 years old, and many low-rise buildings are over 35 years old, causing "great inconveniences" for residents.

He said that residences over 30 years old also need to be transformed into "comfortable and safe homes."

Moa Towns are selected when individual land lots of multi-unit house landowners are coalesced and jointly developed as block-unit, low-rise residential apartments within a 100,000 square meter area.

The Moa Town area in Jungnang District was initially selected as a site for a large-scale Seoul "new town project" some 20 years ago, which faced delays and was virtually abandoned due to failing to meet requirements. The area is lined with old two-to-three-story houses with narrow alleyways.

"We will reexamine reconstruction and redevelopment project procedures from the bottom up and make improvements so that we can dramatically increase the speed of the projects," Yoon said.

He promised the government would improve people's living conditions by expanding financial support and relocation loans and do its best to "fundamentally stabilize the housing market by rationalizing various regulations."

Yoon said that rather than forcing people to the city's outskirts to find new homes, the government will try to improve the living environment so that people can find residences close to their workplaces.

"Housing and residences are the most important areas for public livelihood, and the people have suffered a lot because of unreasonable and excessive regulations in this area in the past," Yoon said. "Our government has worked to normalize the real estate market by continuing to remove regulations that distort it so that it operates according to economic principles rather than politics or ideology."

Yoon noted that the government has worked toward deregulation in the tax, finance and supply sectors, including reducing punitive taxation such as comprehensive real estate tax, easing safety assessment criteria for reconstruction and reducing reconstruction charges.

The number of passed safety diagnosis assessments increased from 65 over the past five years to 163 this year, and the number of maintenance zone designations, which averaged only 28,000 annually, more than doubled to 62,000 this year.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, center right, and Land Minister Won Hee-ryong, left, listen to Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, center left, during a visit to the city government’s “Moa Town” urban regeneration project in Jungnang District, eastern Seoul, on Thursday. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

During the meeting, Yoon discussed ways to improve old residential areas with urban development experts and residents, according to the presidential office.

Yoon listened to the residents' views on the need for small-scale housing maintenance management, their difficulties due to excessive regulations and concerns over delays in redevelopment projects.

Minister Won and Seoul Mayor Oh said they will review measures to improve conditions for redevelopment and reconstruction of such residences and provide financing for such projects, the presidential office said in a statement.

They said they will search for other candidate sites for redevelopment and reconstruction projects like Moa Town and minimize tenant conflicts by dispatching a coordinator and forming a consultative body to ensure that socially disadvantaged people are included in redevelopment projects.

Oh briefed the president on the status of regional development. He said 81 Moa Towns, 104 redevelopments and 214 reconstruction projects were in progress in Seoul.

Earlier that morning, Yoon visited a widowed senior citizen in her 80s living alone in a multiunit house in Jungnang District to deliver winter supplies as the city combats a recent cold wave.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]