Housing Supply Rate Will Be Over 100% in Next Month

The housing supply rate will be over 100% firstly in the middle of the next month.

However, 20% of housing doesn`t meet the minimum level for residency, so an improving policy for housing is indicated to be prepared urgently.

According the estimation by Ministry of Construction and Transportation base on the construction approval of independent housing, common resident housing, apartment, etc on the 21st, the supply rate will be 99.7% at the end of this month and reach 100.2% at the end of the next month. And the rate will be 100.7% at the end of this year.

The housing supply rate had been declined from 78.2% in the end of 1970`s to 69.2% at the end of year 1987. Because of industrialization and the increase of `nuclear families` by transferring from rural area to urban area resulted in the increase of the number of household and the housing supply rate decreased rapidly.

However, `2 Million Units of Housing Construction` began and the units of housing increased. So housing supply rate was ▽72.4% in the end of 1990 ▽86.0% in the end of 1995 ▽96.2% in the end of 2000 ▽98.3% in the end of 2001.

However, it is known that even if the quantity of housing increased, the quality of housing is still poor.

According to Korean National Housing Corp., 23.1% (3,300,000 units) of total housing (14,312,000 units) doesn`t meet the minimum resident condition. The minimum resident condition means number of room compare to the number of family, purposed kitchen space, purpose toilet space.

Among the housing below the minimum resident condition, ▽14.6% (2,090,000 units) is below minimum number of rooms ▽5.2% (744,000 units) hasn`t purposed kitchen toilet ▽3.3% (472,000 units) are below both the minimum condition of rooms, toilet and kitchen.

According to the geographical classification, Ulsan shows highest level of 29.2% inappropriate housing condition, and Busan (26.7%), Daegu (26.3%), Cheju (26.0%), Kyunggi (24.0%), Seoul (23.5%), Kyungnam (23.4%) show above of nationwide average.

Yun Ju-hyun, a research of Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements indicated “As housing supply rate becomes over 100%, the problem of absolute shortage is solved, However, the improve of the quality is also urgent one.” and added “Accurate survey on deterioration, ownership on nationwide housing should be performed firstly to establish appropriate policy.”

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com