Rental Housing to be Increased by 100,000 Complexes

The government is pursuing a plan to purchase 100,000 multi-housing complexes within big cities nationwide by 2012 and utilize them as rental housing for citizens with below-average incomes.

Citizens with below-average incomes who do not possess real estate and commute to the city center are expected to be relieved of housing inconveniences.

According to the Chung Wa Dae, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, and the Korea National Housing Corporation, the government has reached a decision on February 25 to review plans to increase the number of multi-housing rental complexes from its initial plan of 10,000 houses by 2008 to 100,000 houses by 2012.

The plan follows the analysis that the nationally funded rental housing to be built mainly in the suburbs will be insufficient to stabilize housing difficulties for urban sub-average income citizens.

Last year’s plans supplying multi-housing rental complexes to five districts, including Kwanak-gu, Seoul, received positive reviews from inhabitants.

The Housing Corporation submitted a plan providing 45,000 houses by 2007 and 55,000 houses by 2008 to 2012.

The Housing Corporation is also reviewing a plan to install a management center for each region in cities nationwide for effective management of multi-housing rental complexes.

The Housing Corporation installed a new “Housing Welfare Headquarters’” this month with an executive of the corporation as its head that will manage the project.

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com