Gangwon State to revive vacant homes as hubs for housing and startups, boosting regional vitality

【Financial News Chuncheon = Reporter Kim Giseop】Gangwon State will increase next year’s vacant-home renovation target by 120 buildings from the original plan to 625, and begin work to revive vacant homes in Hoengseong, Yeongwol and Goseong as housing for rural school stays and startup spaces for young people.
According to Gangwon State on the 16th, the province held the second 2026 meeting of the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Vacant Home Management Governance that day at Liberty Hall of the Gangwon Research Institute, with around 60 people in attendance, including provincial officials, representatives from 18 cities and counties, and vacant-home management advisers. The meeting was held to review the governance’s policy implementation since its launch at the first meeting in April and address difficulties in the field. Discussions focused on ways to increase renovation numbers while putting usable vacant homes to work as housing and startup spaces.
Under its comprehensive vacant-home management plan drawn up last December, the province plans to spend 35.8 billion won by 2030 to renovate 3,050 homes, or 43% of the 7,091 vacant homes in the province. Next year, it will renovate 625 buildings in total, adding 120 projects funded by cities and counties from their own budgets to the original target of 505, and accelerate efforts to address regional depopulation.
The key agenda item that day was the Gangwon Sumgyeol Vacant Home Utilization Pilot Project. Hoengseong, Yeongwol and Goseong counties, selected as pilot areas, will invest 3.3 billion won—including 1.5 billion won from a fund and 1.8 billion won in county funds—to turn 15 vacant buildings into new spaces. Hoengseong County will develop housing for rural school stays and rental housing for returning farmers and people moving to the countryside. Yeongwol County will establish family-stay rural school housing and a community center. Goseong County will create a youth startup and multipurpose space with long- and short-term rental housing, a book café and a village library. Each county presented a detailed implementation plan that day and received advice from the committee members.
The province plans to develop the pilot into a Gangwon-style vacant-home utilization model that helps attract people and improve conditions for people to settle in the area. Cities and counties will prepare for every stage of the project, from purchasing vacant homes to remodeling, operation and follow-up management. The province will draw on the advisory panel’s expertise to improve the quality of the projects and spread successful cases to other cities and counties. The province and cities and counties also agreed to make active use of the public notice procedures under the newly enacted special law whose owners are unclear or where inheritance issues are delaying consent for demolition. Requests from cities and counties to increase dedicated staff and make financial support rates more realistic will be addressed through proposals to central government ministries and consultations between the province and local governments.
“We will resolve cases where vacant homes have been left unattended because consent for demolition was stalled by using the procedures under the Special Act. We will turn vacant homes with potential into housing for rural school stays or startup spaces for young people, making these places ones where people gather again,” said Kim Sun-ha, head of Gangwon State’s Architecture Division. “Working with the advisory panel and cities and counties, we will establish a Gangwon-style vacant-home renovation and utilization model so that this pilot project can spread to other cities and counties.”

[email protected] Kim Giseop Reporter