Oh Se-hoon: "Seoul's new urban maintenance district designations more than doubled over five years... Former Mayor Park Won-soon encouraged districts to be lifted"

[Financial News] Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon criticized the housing policies of former Mayor Park Won-soon on the 21st, saying they had caused Seoul's housing shortage. He added that the city would promote housing supply by easing regulations on urban maintenance projects and beginning construction on 310,000 housing units by 2031.
Oh held a housing policy achievements briefing in the main conference room of the Seoul Metropolitan Government that day and said, "We need to make responsibility clear." Earlier, President Lee Jae Myung identified the decline in housing permits and construction starts during Oh's tenure as mayor as the cause of Seoul's supply shortage at a press conference on the 18th.
Oh said, "When I took office, urban maintenance projects had come to a halt," adding, "A total of 389 urban maintenance districts were lifted between 2012 and 2020. The corresponding supply amounted to 430,000 housing units." He continued, "The Seoul Metropolitan Government was busy lifting urban maintenance districts, using conflicts within project promotion committees or associations as a pretext. It is more accurate to say that it encouraged the districts to be lifted," and criticized the city, saying, "It was the Seoul Metropolitan Government that created openings and fomented conflict."
Oh added, "The 35-story height restriction for residential buildings was also introduced under former Mayor Park, and many redevelopment complexes stalled because of it. The consent procedure was strengthened from one round to three, while the structural safety requirement for reconstruction was raised from 20% to 50%, leaving almost no sites able to pass the structural safety assessment."
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the number of newly designated urban maintenance districts in Seoul has averaged 35 per year over the past five years, more than double the annual average of 17 during the preceding 10 years. Urban maintenance projects are currently under way at 496 sites across Seoul.
Through Fast-Track Planning, introduced in 2021, projects involving a total of 307,000 housing units are under way in 214 districts. The achievement rate against the Seoul Metropolitan Government's target is 114%. The designation period for urban maintenance districts, which typically took more than five years, has also been shortened to about two years, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
Oh explained, "From January through July this year, construction starts resulting from urban maintenance projects reached 50% of the target. If we previously focused on establishing the foundation for supply by designating urban maintenance districts, we are now beginning to turn housing supply achievements into reality by speeding up permits and construction starts."
Oh assessed that some of the measures proposed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to promote urban maintenance projects had been reflected in the government's August 13 measures. However, he argued that additional regulatory easing was needed to accelerate construction starts and move-ins. His specific requests included improving regulations on relocation-expense loans; lowering the share of rental housing in redevelopment projects to 30–50%; a 1.2-fold relaxation of the statutory maximum floor-area ratio for urban maintenance projects; and a temporary three-year suspension of restrictions on transferring association-member status.
Oh said, "These are institutional improvements for housing supply, not regulatory easing intended to drive up home prices." He added, "If projects are halted because they are not financially viable, or if they are suspended because relocation expenses cannot be secured, Seoul residents will ultimately have fewer homes to move into several years from now."
Oh reaffirmed his opposition to a plan to transfer approval authority for urban maintenance projects involving 500 households or fewer to autonomous districts. He said decentralizing authority would not necessarily speed up projects and could undermine consistency in urban planning by applying different standards in each district.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the period handled by the city accounts for about 2.7% of the total duration of urban maintenance projects. The city's review period has also been reduced from six months to one year in the past to one to three months recently. However, 17 of Seoul's 25 autonomous districts do not have personnel with experience reviewing urban maintenance projects.
Hong Ji-sun, nominee for minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, recently said he envisioned turning the returned Yongsan U.S. military base site into a park while leaving open the possibility of housing supply in surrounding areas. Oh reiterated his opposition, saying, "The Yongsan Park site must not be touched under any circumstances."
Oh added, "The Tancheon Sewage Treatment Center site is about twice the size of the combined DAPA site, military apartment site and officers' quarters site that the nominee is considering," and said, "I hope MOLIT will respond positively." 
[email protected] Choi A-young Reporter