Construction of Love Hotel to Be Prohibited around Seoul

Seoul municipal government proscribes the construction of accommodations and entertainment places such as love hotel and karaoke pub within 200m around the residential area in Seoul from 10th.

The Seoul city passed the revised regulation bill on urban planning in the regulation consultation meeting yesterday.

According to the revised regulations, even in the commercial areas, the city bans the construction of general accommodations and entertainment places within 50m from the residential area boundary. And in the areas within 200m, it can refuse to grant a permit to construction through a consultation with the committee for urban planning, if the construction impairs the residential and educational environments or the civil petition is raised.

The current regulations on urban planning lacked a regulation on range limitation, so that could not prevent the lodgings from crowding in a residential area, if it was designated as a commercial area.

The general accommodation includes small-scale hotel—popularly named as `love hotel`, lodging, and inn. And the entertainment place refers to karaoke pub, casino, cabaret and ballroom. However, the revised regulations are not applied to massage parlor and non-alcoholic karaoke, which are classified as neighborhood facility.

The regulation consultation committee decided to pass the original revised bill enforcing to collect 0.8 percent of apartment sales and 1.5 percent of land sales as fund for securing the school site, and to implement it from 10th.

According to the revised regulations, a new purchaser of the mid-size apartment worthy of 250 million won has to additionally pay 2 million won, causing the actual increase of the price of apartment.

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