Safety Check on Reconstruction to Become More Strict

It appears that proceeding with the reconstruction business will become increasingly difficult as the safety check procedure regarding reconstruction of apartments intensifies by as early as May.

According to the Ministry of Construction and Transportation and the Uri Party, the government-ruling party has decided to legalize a measure so that lower level local governments on the municipal, county, and district levels will have to first approve the inspection results of the safety of apartments, before being verified again by the head of the upper level local governments or the construction minister.

One ruling party official said, “These will be added in the ‘8.31 follow up measures’ that will be presented at the end of this month, and a revised bill of ‘city and living environment preparation law’ will be presented in the form of legislation by Assembly members during the extraordinary session of the National Assembly, which will commence next month, and the law will be enforced by as early as May.”

The government-ruling party is planning to leave the verification process regarding the safety check of reconstruction to public institutes such as the Korea Institute of Construction Technology and Korea Infrastructure Safety and Technology Corporation. Currently, private safety checking businesses are assessing the safety and deterioration rate of construction projects, which are then approved by director of the region.

The government-ruling party is planning to focus its inspection on major reconstruction apartments in the Seoul Gangnam area, including Eunma Apartment in Daechi-dong in the Gangnam area.

A ruling party official said, “More than 90 percent of apartments that request for safety inspection pass, which shows how careless the checking process is,” and added, “The approval rate will fall greatly if the head of the upper level local governments or the construction minister starts to inspect the procedures.”

The government-ruling party is also looking over measures to take back 10 to 40 percent of profit generated through the reconstruction business in areas designated as districts that have too much speculation.

Joong-Hyun Park In-Jik Cho sanjuck@donga.com cij1999@donga.com