Oh Se-hoon orders progress board in his office to track Seoul's 310,000-unit housing push

"I will personally oversee redevelopment projects. Please install a progress board showing the completion rate of the Rapid Integrated Planning initiative in my office."

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon is tightening his grip on the drive to meet his key campaign pledge for his ninth elected term: breaking ground on 310,000 housing units by 2031. As Oh continues to publicly criticize the central government's real estate policy, he is moving to assert policy leadership through expanded housing supply via redevelopment projects. He has told city officials that the ground-breaking target must be met within his term and ordered them to accelerate the pace.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Friday, Oh recently directed staff at an internal meeting to install a board in his office displaying redevelopment project completion rates and progress, saying he would monitor the projects directly. The move signals a shift in focus: whereas previous efforts centered on designating redevelopment zones, the new term will prioritize cutting the time it takes to complete projects.

Oh said public interest in the Rapid Integrated Planning initiative had grown since the June 3 local elections and called on officials to strengthen the capacity of the redevelopment progress promotion meetings. The city's housing bureau has since begun follow-up work to accelerate the pace of redevelopment projects.

During his campaign, Oh pledged to introduce a "fast-track integrated" approach that would maintain the existing Rapid Integrated Planning framework while speeding up project timelines. The core of the plan is to skip the preparatory committee stage and process the project implementation plan and management and disposal plan simultaneously, while giving intensive management to 85 zones — roughly 85,000 households — that are at the relocation and pre-ground-breaking stage, in order to bring forward the supply timeline.

Oh's ultimate goal is to break ground on 310,000 units by 2031, resolving what he identifies as the housing supply shortage — the primary driver of rising home prices. Annual ground-breaking targets are set at 23,000 units in 2026, 34,000 in 2027, 22,000 in 2028, 46,000 in 2029, 73,000 in 2030 and 112,000 in 2031. As the volume ramps up sharply toward 2029–2031, the city plans to focus on sustaining project momentum over the long term.

The redevelopment progress promotion meetings that Seoul has run since August last year are also set to gain more clout. Starting this month, the city is pursuing a plan to have the second deputy mayor for administration — who oversees disaster safety, housing and urban planning — chair the meetings directly.

Seoul has held the promotion meetings to shorten redevelopment timelines and tighten progress management. Each month, a director-level architecture planning official has served as the overall progress coordinator, while district-level redevelopment directors have participated as progress managers, tracking schedules for individual redevelopment sites across autonomous districts. Projects have been classified into three stages based on their progress and reviewed accordingly.

Alongside efforts to invigorate redevelopment as the backbone of housing supply, the city is also moving faster to identify youth-focused housing supply options. "The election confirmed strong support among younger voters, so there is a shared understanding that we need to develop youth-oriented policies," one official said. Seoul plans to track the progress rate of youth housing projects on a weekly basis.

While internally preparing to accelerate redevelopment, Oh also plans to keep pressing the central government to change its housing and real estate policy direction. He is expected to attend a Cabinet meeting in July to raise a range of issues, including deregulation of redevelopment-related loan restrictions on relocation costs and instability in the rental market.

"Oh's firm position is that he cannot back down when it comes to housing and real estate issues — jeonse and monthly rent instability, supply delays — when dealing with the government," another official said. "He will continue to put out messages that reflect what people are experiencing on the ground."

노도강 아파트 전세가율 文시절 ‘육박’…서울 외곽 집값 더 뛰나 [부동산360]

https://biz.heraldcorp.com/article/10770136