‘₩48 billion in Seoul-owned land’ inside Eunma Town Apartments passes to Jeong Tae-su’s heirs, creating a reconstruction wild card

[Financial News] A land ownership dispute has emerged as a new variable in the reconstruction of Eunma Town Apartments in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, which had been picking up pace toward a 2028 groundbreaking. This follows a court ruling that the heirs of the late Jeong Tae-su, former chairman of the Hanbo Group, should receive a site within the complex worth about ₩48 billion that had remained registered under the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s name. The association says it can secure the project site through legal procedures, while the heirs’ side has warned of a hard-line response.
According to the redevelopment industry on the 30th, the 33rd Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court, presided over by Judge Choi Jong-jin, recently ruled that ownership of a 795-square-meter site around 1020-2 Daechi-dong, registered as belonging to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, be transferred to the heirs of the late former chairman Jeong. Applying the going price for Eunma Town Apartments land—about ₩200 million per 3.3 square meters—the site is estimated to be worth around ₩48 billion.
At the heart of the court’s ruling was a land sale contract drawn up 48 years ago. In 1978, Jeong was in charge of the development and construction of Eunma Town Apartments and purchased the site from the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
The apartment complex was subsequently completed, but the Seoul Metropolitan Government remained the registered owner of the land. The reason ownership was not transferred has not been established, but the court recognized, among other things, that the sale contract from the time still existed and that Jeong had paid the purchase price to the city.
This is the heirs’ first win in a series of lawsuits over land within the Eunma complex. The heirs are currently involved in a total of eight lawsuits against the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the reconstruction association, among others. Other parcels registered under the city’s name are also subject to litigation, so further rulings could result in additional land being transferred to the heirs.
On the 8th of this month, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the opposite direction. It finalized a ruling ordering that a 2,190.6-square-meter site at 1020-1 Daechi-dong, which had been registered in the names of Jeong’s heirs, be transferred to three Eunma Town Apartments association members who had filed suit.
The land also has considerable economic value. When the Eunma association filed suit in 2023, it valued the seven disputed parcels, totaling about 4,395 square meters, at ₩144 billion.
The two sides remain far apart in their plans for what comes next. The association intends to resolve the ownership issue through litigation rather than enter separate negotiations with the heirs. The association said, “The association can secure land owned by nonmembers who own only land through legal procedures such as a claim for sale, so the lawsuit itself is no reason to halt the reconstruction project.”
The heirs’ side countered, “If the association claims ownership of the land we will obtain through this ruling or pursues a claim for sale, we will respond through legal channels.” It said it could even file a constitutional complaint if its property rights were infringed.
In reconstruction projects, land ownership and eligibility for association membership are separate matters. The Act on the Improvement of Urban Areas and Residential Environments defines owners of land, etc., in a reconstruction project as people who own buildings within the redevelopment zone and the land appurtenant to them. Therefore, even if the heirs secure ownership of the land, they are unlikely to qualify for ordinary reconstruction association membership on the basis of land alone.
In this dispute, too, the key issue may be who secures the land needed for the project and on what terms, rather than the allocation of new apartments. There is a legal route for securing the project site. Article 64 of the same act allows a claim for sale to be made, after following specified procedures and deadlines, against owners of land, etc., who did not consent to the establishment of the association, as well as people who own only a building or only land.
However, this does not mean the association can immediately force the other party, whose ownership has been recognized, to dispose of the land unilaterally. Whether a claim for sale is lawful and how disputes over ownership and the sale price should be resolved are matters requiring separate legal determinations.
The Eunma reconstruction project will transform 28 buildings completed in 1979, comprising 4,424 households, into a complex of up to 49 stories with 5,850 households. Following approval for the establishment of the association in 2023, the project underwent an integrated review in February this year and received approval for its project implementation plan on July 2. The goal is to complete approval of the management and disposition plan, relocation and demolition, and break ground as early as 2028.
The project implementation plan announced by the Seoul Metropolitan Government last July also includes 909 public rental housing units and 195 public housing units for sale. Public contribution facilities, including a park, a public parking lot and an open-access library, are also planned.
[email protected] Seung-hyun Ahn Reporter