A plan to supply 20,000 homes within Seoul's Gangnam living zone has moved onto a full track. The district designation of the Seoripul 2 District in Umyeon-dong, Seocho-gu, which had been delayed by resident opposition, was completed Tuesday. Amid surging housing prices in the greater Seoul area and a deepening rental crunch, the government pushed ahead with the district designation even before the conflict was fully resolved, making clear its commitment to expanding supply. Starting with Seoripul, new housing site projects in the greater Seoul area created by lifting greenbelt restrictions—including Goyang Daegok, Uiwang Ojeon-Wanggok, and Uijeongbu Yonghyeon—are also expected to gain momentum.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said Tuesday that it had designated 193,259 square meters in Umyeon-dong, Seocho-gu, as the "Seoul Seoripul 2 Public Housing District," adding 2,000 homes. The Seoripul 2 District went through a public review in November 2024, completed consultations with related agencies including the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seocho-gu, a strategic environmental impact assessment, and a disaster impact review, and passed deliberation by the Central Urban Planning Committee in March this year.
This designation cleared the uncertainty that had weighed on the project. Residents of Songdong Village and Sikyuchon Village had demanded the villages be preserved, citing their historical significance, and all three public hearings on the draft strategic environmental impact assessment attempted by the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) collapsed due to resident refusal. In the end, MOLIT proceeded with the process while omitting the public hearings. Combined with the Seoripul 1 District (18,000 homes), supply on the scale of a total of 20,000 homes in the Gangnam area alone is now in full swing.
The Seoripul 2 District boasts a location that combines access to the Gangnam city center with a natural environment including Umyeon Mountain. Together with the Seoripul 1 District designated in February, it will be developed into a job-residence proximity housing complex supporting high-tech industries in the Yangjae and Gangnam areas. As a core Gangnam living zone where the Shinbundang Line Cheonggyesan Station, GTX-C Yangjae Station, and the Gyeongbu Expressway intersect, 11,000 homes—55% of the total supply—are allocated as Long-Term Jeonse Housing II (Mirinae House) for newlyweds, to be used as a residential foundation for the younger generation.
A push for speed in the project is also getting underway in earnest. A typical housing site project takes about 56 months from district designation to housing groundbreaking, but the Seoripul 2 District prepared follow-up procedures such as district planning preemptively even before district designation, and will accelerate the process by running housing groundbreaking design in parallel with the site preparation stage. Through this, it plans to shorten the groundbreaking timeline by more than two years compared with a typical housing site project, breaking ground on its first housing project in December 2028. LH's establishment last month of a dedicated organization, the "Seoul Seoripul Project Team," overseen by a Grade 1 project director, was in the same vein.
Market expectations are also clear. Since the district announcement, actual transaction prices at nearby Seocho Foresta complexes have risen by 200 million to 300 million won compared with November 2024. A MOLIT official said, "Whether it's compensation or demands for preservation, there have always been residents who oppose development in the early stages at any housing site," adding, "After the district designation, we will continue negotiations and coordinating opinions with them during the district planning stage."
The other three new housing sites in the greater Seoul area announced together in November 2024 are also currently underway. The Goyang Daegok Station area (9,400 homes), a "penta-station area" where five rail lines—GTX-A, Line 3, the Gyeongui-Jungang Line, the Seohae Line, and the Gyogyo Line—intersect, is holding a design competition worth a total of 20 billion won for the urban-architectural integrated plan of a knowledge convergence complex, with the screening results to be released at the end of this month. The concept is to build a complex transfer center by 2035 and develop it into a knowledge convergence complex equipped with self-sufficiency and business functions.
For the Uiwang Ojeon-Wanggok District (14,000 homes), LH will begin accepting submissions for the urban-architectural integrated plan design competition on the 22nd and announce the winning entry in July. Of the entire site of 1,878,000 square meters, 87% is a development-restricted zone, and a public housing ratio of 50% or more will be applied. LH is preparing a strategy to speed up permits and approvals, including selecting priority groundbreaking areas, to meet the 2029 groundbreaking schedule.
The Uijeongbu Yonghyeon District (7,275 homes), to be built on 809,474 square meters including the site of the 306 Replacement Battalion, will submit a draft environmental impact assessment within this month. It has sharply reduced administrative time by using the integrated approval system for district designation and district planning, which applies to projects of 1 million square meters or less. The goal is to finalize district designation within the year.
Lee Jae-pyeong, MOLIT's housing supply policy director, said, "Since the Seoripul 2 District designated this time is a public housing site project being supplied in an attractive location within Seoul's Gangnam area, we will push it forward with a sense of speed through thorough project management and communication with residents." He added, "We will boldly cut unnecessary procedures and run permits and the construction process in parallel to make it an exemplary case that has innovatively raised project speed."
