With Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party candidate for Seoul mayor, winning his fifth term in the June 3 local elections, his Speedy Integrated Planning 2.0 (Sintong 2.0) initiative is also expected to gain momentum. Mayor-elect Oh pledged a "supply-at-all-costs" drive to break ground on 310,000 homes by 2031, along with Sintong 2.0. His plan is to boost supply within the city center by expanding private reconstruction and redevelopment through deregulation.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Tuesday, Oh will introduce a fast-track integration track into Sintong 2.0 to accelerate the pace of supply. This track skips the formation of preparatory committees and processes project implementation authorization and management disposition authorization simultaneously. He also plans to provide guidelines that allow construction plans and contribution payments to be decided and project implementation plans and management disposition plans to proceed at the same time. Through this, he aims to supply 310,000 homes by 2031, including 198,000 homes in the Han River Belt. Of the 310,000 homes targeted for groundbreaking, the net increase is 87,000 homes.
Oh particularly stressed that he would intensively manage 85,000 homes in key strategic redevelopment zones where groundbreaking is possible within three years. Major project sites in the relocation and groundbreaking stages would be designated as key strategic redevelopment zones to break ground first. Through this, he plans to compress the redevelopment project period from more than 20 years to 12 years. Relocation cost loan support using the Seoul Metropolitan Government's housing promotion fund will also be expanded. The judgment is that, in Seoul where idle land is scarce, the rapid groundbreaking of redevelopment and reconstruction projects is a more realistic supply solution than finding new housing sites.
Intensive investment is also expected in the Gangbuk and southwestern districts. Oh's policy is to pursue a special urban complex development measure that applies a floor area ratio of up to 1,300 percent within a 500-meter radius of transfer stations. Along with this, he presented a six-package set of incentives to improve housing in Gangbuk, including upgrading land use along major arterial roads, expanding the prior-negotiation system, expanding Gangbuk-style station-area projects, introducing a profitability adjustment coefficient, and easing height regulations in altitude-restricted districts. To prepare for relocation demand, he will also establish a redevelopment relocation REIT to supply housing dedicated to relocators on a scale of 100,000 homes.
Oh also plans to supply about 130,000 public homes by 2031, including 123,000 public rental homes and 6,500 public sale homes. He also presented non-apartment supply as a separate axis. He plans to support the construction of 10,000 villa and multi-household units each year.
The key question is the landscape of district chiefs and the city council, both overwhelmingly dominated by the ruling party. Authority related to reconstruction and redevelopment lies with district offices, while funding support for relocation cost loans requires the cooperation of the city council. As seen in cases such as the Sewoon District 4 and the Yongsan International Business District, the central government is also likely to be unfavorable toward the Seoul Metropolitan Government's policies.
Oh earlier stated, "If elected, I will participate in the Cabinet meeting held immediately after the start of my term and request President Lee Jae-myung to ease relocation cost loans for redevelopment and reconstruction and to improve restrictions on the transfer of association member status." The industry believes that whether Oh fulfills his pledges and stabilizes the real estate market will depend on how he coordinates with the Democratic Party, the dominant ruling party.
