LH to Cut Compensation Period for New Housing Sites from 3 Years 8 Months to 2 Years, Bringing Groundbreaking Forward by 20 Months

[Financial News] Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) will reduce the compensation period for new public housing districts from 3 years 8 months to 2 years, cutting 20 months from the process. The plan is to bring forward the start of housing construction by adding compensation personnel and conducting basic surveys and appraisals simultaneously.
According to LH on the 2nd, the compensation system overhaul will focus on expanding the organization and workforce, running procedures in parallel, and introducing cooperation incentives and compulsory performance charges. The measure is intended to implement the government’s plan for early construction of public housing sites under the “Plan for Rapid Housing Supply to Stabilize the Jeonse, Monthly Rent and Home Sales Markets,” announced last month.
The compensation process will be changed so that multiple stages are carried out simultaneously, reducing the time required.
Basic surveys will begin earlier and proceed alongside appraisals. This will cut the period from the start of the basic survey to the launch of negotiated compensation from 21 months to 9 months—more than half.
The period from negotiated compensation to an expropriation ruling will be shortened from 12 months to 9 months. After compensation is completed, incentives and sanctions to accelerate relocation and eviction will reduce the process by an additional 5 months. Through these measures, LH aims to cut the total compensation period from district designation to the start of site development by 20 months.
LH will also introduce a cooperation incentive program to encourage landowners to cooperate. Owners who assist with the development of public housing districts—from basic surveys and negotiated contracts to voluntary relocation—will receive incentives based on the timing of their relocation.
An amendment to Article 27 of the Special Act on Public Housing, which provides the legal basis for the incentives, passed the National Assembly’s plenary session last month. Once the law takes effect six months after its promulgation, LH plans to immediately implement the cooperation incentive program. It will also introduce a compulsory performance charge, a financial penalty for those who refuse to hand over or relocate land or property after receiving compensation.
A total of 344 personnel will be assigned to compensation work at major housing supply sites in the metropolitan area. LH will draw on experienced compensation staff from its headquarters and non-metropolitan regions, employees hired in the first half of this year, and temporary workers with specialized expertise and experience. It also plans to separately hire 250 specialists this month.
The additional personnel will complete compensation and land acquisition for the Third New Towns, where relocation is nearing its final stage, and will be deployed to project districts currently undergoing compensation procedures, including Gwangmyeong-Siheung and Seoul Seoripul. The shortened procedures will be applied to districts newly beginning compensation.
LH will establish a Compensation Acceleration Support Task Force (TFT) at its headquarters, staffed by compensation experts. The unit will examine bottlenecks at each stage of projects, including reviews of state- and publicly owned land, business compensation assessments, and delays in administrative procedures, while supporting the resolution of pending issues and civil complaints.
Meanwhile, LH President Lee Seong-hoon visited the compensation site at the Gwangmyeong-Siheung public housing district on the same day to inspect progress. The Gwangmyeong-Siheung district is the largest project among the Third New Towns, covering approximately 12.71 million square meters and supplying 67,000 homes. Negotiated compensation has been under way since July, with groundbreaking targeted for 2027.
LH expanded the district’s dedicated compensation organization from one team of 21 people to two teams totaling 41. One month after compensation began, the contract signing rate based on the number of landowners stood at approximately 27%, while the compensation amount totaled about 2.4 trillion won.
Lee said, "We carried out an overall overhaul from the perspective of supporting field operations to accelerate compensation work, which is the starting point for housing supply and a key stage that determines the pace of project implementation."
[email protected] Choi Ga-young Reporter