Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) said demolition has begun for the first time at a site under its urban public housing complex program, five years after the program started.
LH said the Banghak Station complex district in Seoul, designated in the program's first round of sites, began demolition work on the 21st. The program is one approach to redeveloping aging urban districts where private redevelopment is difficult: LH and other public bodies carry out the projects directly, improving financial viability through incentives such as higher floor area ratios and speeding up work by streamlining complex permit procedures.
The Banghak Station district, along with the eastern district at Ssangmun Station in Seoul, has moved fastest, with demolition starting five years after being designated a candidate site in 2021. LH said that is more than eight years faster than private redevelopment and rebuilding projects in Seoul, which take an average of 14 years and six months from launch to groundbreaking.
LH completed priority presales to existing residents of the Banghak Station district last year, and Doosan E&C will build 420 apartment units on a 8,428-square-meter site. About 100 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony, including LH President Lee Sung-hoon, National Assembly members Oh Ki-hyoung, Kim Young-bae and Kim Nam-keun, and resident representatives.
"With urban complex projects in the Seoul area breaking ground one after another starting in the first half of next year, the effects of urban housing supply will become more tangible," Lee said. "We will closely monitor conditions at each district and move up the schedule at each stage as much as possible so that groundbreakings continue without interruption."
According to LH, six urban complex districts in the Seoul area, comprising 7,775 units, are now firmly under way. The Banghak Station and Ssangmun Station eastern districts have completed compensation procedures and will carry out resident relocation and demolition simultaneously within the year, with groundbreaking set for the first half of next year. Compensation contracts will begin in October for the Yeonsinnae Station district and the western district at Ssangmun Station, and in November for the Singil District 2 and Jeungsan District 4. Those four districts are targeted to break ground in 2028.
LH has set up a dedicated implementation body, the LH Special Headquarters for Metropolitan Area Redevelopment, staffed with 244 people, to ensure a steady volume of urban housing groundbreakings each year. It also plans to concentrate personnel at the main bottlenecks — permits, compensation, relocation and demolition — to speed up the work.
