Jung Won-oh, the Democratic Party's candidate for Seoul mayor, has unveiled a housing welfare pledge to renovate 40,000 of Seoul's roughly 370,000 substandard residences—including semi-basement and rooftop units—into "proper homes" within his term.
Jung announced the "Proper Home for All" pledge on the 28th. The strategy aims to expand citywide his experience as Seongdong District chief, where he conducted a full survey of hazardous dwellings such as semi-basement housing, established the "Hazardous Dwelling Standards Guidelines," and supported home repairs.
Jung first plans to establish a "Seoul Minimum Housing Performance Guideline" that secures insulation performance, natural lighting, and independent bathrooms. To this end, he intends to design the program with conditions including an average repair subsidy of around 3 million won per household and a six-year cap on rent increases following renovation, helping existing residents maintain housing stability.
Jung also pledged to supply at least 130,000 public rental units to non-homeowners such as young people and newlyweds. He plans to meet the target by 2031 through reconstruction of six permanent rental complexes, 50,000 newly built purchased rental units, 50,000 public rental units and dormitories, and 30,000 rental units for newlyweds.
Together with the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), he will also establish an "Integrated Metropolitan Waiting List" combining Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon, with the goal of reducing inconvenience in housing subscriptions. In addition, regarding jeonse (a Korean lease system requiring a large lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent) fraud damages, he will provide victims with a housing stability subsidy of around 2 million won per year and give priority to jeonse fraud victims in the youth monthly rent support program.
"The era of merely paying lip service to walking with the vulnerable and building homes only in words is over," Jung said. "With the proven capability of being the first to conduct a full survey of semi-basement housing, I will build truly proper homes and transform citizens' daily lives step by step."
