Gov't to build 4-5 new towns to stabilize property market

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Kim Hyun-mee speaks during a press conference at the Government Complex in Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

The government will establish four to five new satellite towns around Seoul to cool down the overheated real estate market in the capital Seoul by supplying more homes, the land minister said Friday.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Kim Hyun-mee said at a press conference that the government will supply land for 300,000 public homes in the capital area and start supplying them from 2021.

Of the total, 200,000 will be located in the four to five new towns which will be established in between Seoul and the existing satellite cities of Ilsan and Bundang in Gyeonggi Province, according to the plan.

“The real estate market in Seoul and some other areas have been oddly overheated recently, due to excessive concerns over a supply shortage and people's difficulties in buying their own house,” Kim said.

“To prevent these, it is important for the government to suggest a vision that it will continue to provide affordable and quality homes to meet the real demand in the market, and make the home supply and demand chain stable.”

According to the plan, each new town will be located on 3.3 square-kilometers. The government will finalize these by the first half of next year.

For the remaining 100,000, the government selected 17 sites for 10,000 homes in Seoul and 25,000 homes in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.

Also, Kim said the government will supply 65,000 homes by allowing building on idling lands in the metropolitan area.

Drawing keen attention were the locations of new housing sites in Seoul.

In the plan, the government selected 11 sites in Seoul, including a former detention center site in Songpa-gu, eastern Seoul, and an old residential town in Gaepo-dong, southern Seoul. The remaining nine sites will be later disclosed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG).

Also newly selected were five sites in Gwangmyeong, Uiwang, Seongnam, Siheung and Uijeongbu, all in Gyeonggi Province, covering 17,160 homes and Geomam in Incheon covering 7,800 homes.

In selecting the Seoul sites, there has been tension between the metropolitan government, which expressed its opposition to the unlocking of greenbelt areas in the capital, and the central government, which is leaning toward tapping into the preserved areas.

The new plan did not include greenbelt areas, but Kim said the central government will “continue talks with Seoul over lifting the regulation,” adding the ministry has the authority to unlock the areas.

The latest plan is a follow-up to the government's Aug. 27 measure, under which it will select 44 new sites to supply 362,000 homes in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province -- it first unveiled 14 sites that will have 62,000 homes.