LH chief vows to push Seoripul housing ground-breaking forward by over a year

Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) said Wednesday that President Lee Seong-hun visited the Seoripul district in Seoul's Seocho-gu — his first field inspection since taking office — to review the project's progress.

During the visit, Lee received briefings on each subdistrict's progress and the project schedule, then ordered that the housing ground-breaking timeline be pushed forward by more than a year beyond the announced plan. He also toured Seoripul District 1 and District 2 in sequence.

The Seoripul district is a flagship site for expanding Seoul's housing supply, with up to 20,000 units planned — 18,000 in District 1 and 2,000 in District 2.

LH plans to file a district plan for District 1 this month and move swiftly to secure approval in the first half of next year and begin compensation in the second half, targeting a 2028 ground-breaking. The corporation also plans to run a consultative body to communicate with residents, as opposition and preservation-related complaints from Seoripul district residents continue, and to hold ongoing discussions on compensation, relocation and other pending issues.

LH also intends to make the Seoripul district a model for the government's new residential policy by supplying specialized housing alongside the main development — expanding public rental units for young people in transit-oriented areas and other prime locations, and introducing mid-size units for newlywed couples and households with newborns.

"The reason I chose the Seoripul district as my first field visit after taking office was to look into ways to advance the project quickly, because rapidly supplying housing in high-demand areas is a critical task for stabilizing the real estate market," Lee said. "We will devote every resource available to housing supply so that low-income residents without homes, young people and newlywed couples can live stably in the Seoul area."

Lee took office Monday and spent the following two days receiving work briefings from each division. Wednesday's visit to the Seoripul district was his first field outing as president, during which he reviewed the progress of urban housing supply — in line with his stated priority of boldly accelerating the pace of housing delivery.

After Seoripul, Lee visited the Seoul Daebang Newlywed Hope Town construction site to conduct a special safety inspection ahead of heavy rain and extreme heat. With a new "extreme heat critical alert" level introduced this year, he checked whether workers were following the five basic heat-safety rules — water, cooling equipment, rest, cold-storage gear and calling 119 — and instructed site managers to strictly enforce work-suspension measures at each heat-alert level.