LH Chief Lee Seong-hun: “We can meet this year’s housing-start target by year-end ... large-scale hiring needed”

[Financial News] Lee Seong-hun, president of Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), said the agency could meet this year’s target for housing starts by year-end. He also stressed the need for large-scale hiring to speed up housing supply. With LH saying it would take the lead in the government’s housing supply drive, Lee pledged to accelerate supply with government support.
Appearing on the 12th at the National Assembly’s annual audit of public institutions under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, including LH, Lee responded to criticism over sluggish housing supply performance, saying, “The calculations show that it is achievable.”
Rep. Jeong asked, “Of LH’s target of starting construction on 51,783 units of construction-based public housing this year, work has actually begun on 13,293 units (25.7%). There are fewer than three months left in the year, and we’re only at about a quarter of the target. Does this align with the goal of early, large-scale supply pledged by President Lee Jae-myung?”
Lee explained, “Most of the units are at the contractor-selection stage at the Public Procurement Service,” adding, “There are a great many units that can begin construction as soon as the contractor selection is complete.” He continued, “Most of the units are also part of projects involving private-sector participation, and we have already selected preferred negotiators for nearly all of them. There are a great many units that can begin construction in November or December.”
However, he apologized for the concentration of housing starts at year-end. Lee said, “We need to address the problem of the concentration of housing starts at year-end,” adding, “We’ll consult with the National Assembly and consider ways to distribute them.” He also said that hiring was essential to speeding up housing supply. “The volume of projects has increased, and the types of projects have become much more complicated,” he said. “We’re in a situation where we need to recruit staff on a large scale.”
He added, “We are currently discussing plans to expand staffing with government ministries, including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. We are asking the government to include proactive staffing increases and pressing for the plan to be reflected as soon as possible.”
He rejected concerns about the fiscal burden of expanding public rental housing. Lee said, “Although the number of rental units is increasing, a substantial portion are universal-type rentals. Low-income-focused rental units often bring in only 10–30% of market rates, resulting in losses, but universal-type rentals are priced at levels close to market rates.” He stressed that universal-type rentals help improve the financial structure.
He also criticized delays in Seoul City’s administrative procedures for urban public housing complex projects. Lee said, “We make inquiries and urge them to move things along, but it isn’t going well,” adding, “It is moving faster than private redevelopment projects, but still falls short of what we expected. I wonder whether Seoul City is short-staffed or whether the procedures are delayed because it has too much work.”
He also said that the approval process for public redevelopment projects needs to be shortened. Lee explained, “We are working to expedite compensation and other processes,” adding, “I hope the approval process can be shortened a little more.”
Lee said, “We have stopped the private sale of land we have developed and shifted to direct implementation, while reorganizing internally and reallocating staff to increase the volume and speed of supply. For public land projects such as Seoripul and Taereung in Seoul, we are boldly carrying out and bringing forward all procedures—including permitting, compensation, demolition and site preparation—at the same time, shortening the time until housing construction begins by at least a year.” He continued, “To expand housing starts from next year for urban homes preferred by the public, we will swiftly advance preliminary procedures for rebuilding aging rental housing, making use of idle sites and urban complex projects.”

[email protected] Jeong Gyeong-su Reporter