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| There are 3,913 unoccupied decrepit homes in Seoul, according to the Seoul Institute. / Yonhap |
By Kim Jae-heun
More than 3,900 old homes in Seoul have been left empty for over a year, a report revealed, Monday, raising concerns that they may be used for crime.
According to the Seoul Institute, there are 3,913 unoccupied decrepit homes in the capital. The number was reached using data from the Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corp., based on the consumption of electricity and water.
The study showed Seongbuk-gu, northeastern Seoul, has the most empty homes with 391, followed by Jongno-gu and Yongsan-gu, both of which are located in central Seoul.
In particular, many unoccupied homes belong to areas that are not benefiting from the Seoul Metropolitan Government's urban regeneration projects, with many of them needing repairs.
The institute said 76 percent of 188 empty homes in the areas are safety hazards, while 79 percent of them have been left unoccupied for long periods of time.
"When a district is excluded from the local government's redevelopment project, people leave their homes for a long time and they eventually become deserted, which aggravates the residential environment and attracts crime," a Seoul Institute official said.
However, some say it is not easy to figure out the current status of housing vacancies.
According to Korea Statistics' 2016 data, a total 95,000 homes in Seoul were uninhabited, but the number also included newly built homes that people had yet to occupy.
However, if the institute narrows down the scope of empty homes to those older than 30 years, the number of deserted homes declined to 11,000, most of which are concentrated in Mapo-gu and its neighborhood Ahyeon-dong which is undergoing massive redevelopment, as well as Eunpyeong-gu, all of which are in western Seoul. Among them, about 2,000 to 3,000 homes are estimated to have been vacant for over one year.
Seoul City has been conducting a complete enumeration survey since last November to find the exact number of unoccupied homes in the city.
The Seoul Institute advises the local government to carry out the survey on a regular basis, while urging it to focus more on areas with high concentrations of abandoned housing and redevelop them first.
It also suggests launching a platform to provide information about vacant homes for people to sell and buy.
In response, Seoul City plans to come up with a comprehensive plan to maintain old homes by the end of the year.
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