Seoul City and SH Complete Acquisition of Land Ownership in Gaepo Guryong Village... "Construction Starts Next Year"

[Financial News] The ownership of land and items such as vinyl houses in Seoul's largest slum and the last slum in the Gangnam area, Guryong Village in Gangnam-gu, Seoul (478 Yangjae-daero, Gangnam-gu), has been completely transferred to the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation. 
On the 27th, Seoul City announced that it had completed compensation negotiations and expropriation procedures that took about 2 years.
Guryong Village is an unauthorized slum formed as evictees moved in during the 1970s and 1980s. It was first designated as an urban development zone in 2012, but due to differences in opinions on the development method, it drifted for a long time before recently getting back on track.
In March, Seoul City announced the winning design for the Guryong Village urban development project, planning to create a nature-friendly residential complex where all generations, including youth, newlyweds, and the elderly, coexist by 2029.
The city explained that the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) completed the acquisition of land and items within the Guryong Village urban development project area, laying the foundation to transform Guryong Village, which is exposed to safety accidents such as fires and floods, into a high-quality residential environment that blends housing and green spaces.
SH started the compensation plan announcement in May 2023 and proceeded with negotiation contracts through three compensation councils and appraisals. For land and items where agreements were not reached, expropriation procedures were conducted according to the Land Compensation Act.
The expropriation procedure is a legal process where the project executor first conducts negotiation contracts with land and item owners to acquire land, etc., for public projects. If no agreement is reached, the local land expropriation committee can acquire land and items.
Once an expropriation application is submitted, the Seoul City Local Land Expropriation Committee makes the final decision on expropriation compensation, and land and item owners apply for and receive the compensation. Compensation for owners who do not apply is deposited by SH at the Seoul Central District Court. All these procedures must be completed to acquire ownership of land and items.
As a result, for land, about 160,000㎡ of private land out of 240,000㎡ completed negotiation contracts, and for the remaining 80,000㎡, an expropriation application was submitted in July last year, and expropriation began on February 7 this year, with ownership transfer registration to SH completed.
For items such as vinyl houses and temporary structures, negotiations were conducted for 967 out of a total of 1,931 cases where owners were identified, resulting in 337 negotiation contracts. For items without agreements or unidentified owners, expropriation procedures were conducted twice, with expropriation start dates arriving in May and August, respectively, completing the ownership acquisition process.
Kim Chang-kyu, head of the Seoul City Balanced Development Headquarters, said, "With the transfer of ownership of land and items in Guryong Village to SH completed, the foundation for creating a nature-friendly residential complex has been laid," adding, "We will continue to communicate with residents who have not moved and support them to move to a safe residential environment, while also striving to start public housing construction stably in the second half of next year."

ming@fnnews.com Jeon Min-kyung Reporter