Land ministry housing forum draws fewer than 300 viewers as experts demand government plan first

A housing supply forum hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Tuesday — held ahead of a presidential real estate policy forum scheduled for July 23 — drew criticism for amounting to little more than a formality. The event, livestreamed on YouTube, attracted only 200 to 300 viewers, and participants called on the government to put forward its own proposals before soliciting public input.

The forum, held at an undisclosed venue in Seoul, covered seven topics including non-apartment housing, redevelopment projects, public rental housing, and housing stability for youth and newlyweds. Discussions on public housing drew a range of views from different stakeholders — particularly on the appropriate ratio of pre-sale to rental units in public land developments such as third-generation new towns, the diversification of rental housing providers, expanding the share of rental units, promoting corporate private rental housing, and easing loan-to-value ratio regulations for registered rental business operators.

Participants argued that the share of public rental housing supplied through public land development should be increased, given the worsening jeonse and monthly rent shortage concentrated in the greater Seoul area. Lee Gang-hun, a lawyer with People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy who attended as a general participant, said he had joined a reform committee at Korea Land and Housing Corporation and found conditions far from straightforward. "The current situation cannot be resolved by supplying public rental housing at the old rate of 35 percent," he said, adding that at least 50 percent of public housing should be designated as public rental units, with some allocated for middle-income households.

On diversifying rental housing providers, the Seoul Metropolitan Government called for easing loan-to-value ratio restrictions and promoting corporate private rental housing. Park Hyeon-jeong, a policy team leader at the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Real Estate Policy Development Center, said the city has 407,000 registered private rental units, of which 340,000 are non-apartment properties. "Because these are units where young people and newlyweds live, we need to prevent them from disappearing," she said. "The current loan-to-value ratio of zero percent makes new acquisitions difficult, and we would like that addressed."

Park also said fostering corporate private rental housing had grown more important. "Individual registered rental operators are declining due to policy shifts and social issues, but 1,400 corporate units are holding steady," she said. "It would be good to bring them into a formal framework and strengthen support for them."

During the rental housing discussion, some experts offered pointed criticism of the government. Choe Eun-yeong, director of the Korea Urban Research Institute, said she found the forum "deeply regrettable" for having turned into a venue for grievances. "The Lee Jae Myung administration has been in office for more than a year, yet there is no government proposal — not even a residential welfare roadmap — and it is inappropriate to simply open the floor and ask the public," she said.

She added that remarks recently attributed to Kim Yong-beom, chief of the presidential policy office, calling for supply "no matter what" were also "highly inappropriate." "The problem is not that supply is too slow — it is that housing is too expensive, and that is what is hurting tenants," she said.

After the seven thematic discussions, experts turned to the government's regulated-area designation system and flagged its side effects. Kim Hyo-seon, a senior real estate specialist at KB Kookmin Bank, said the current administration had applied regulations as a package rather than selectively, as had been done in the past when specific redevelopment or reconstruction projects moved quickly. "As a result, Gangnam-gu and Giheung-gu in Yongin are now subject to the same rules," she said. "Designated areas can help stabilize prices, but housing instability should not be the price of price stability — a full review is needed on a district-by-district basis."

Kim Deok-rye, a senior research fellow at the Korea Housing Industry Research Institute, said the system produced a balloon effect, pushing demand to neighboring areas rather than achieving real results. "I would suggest either a full review aimed at not impeding housing supply for households without homes, or the creation of an entirely new system," she said.

Meanwhile, the forum drew a sparse audience despite being broadcast live on the ministry's official YouTube channel and the KTV YouTube channel. About an hour into the event, viewership stood at 700 to 800; by the two-hour mark, when the regulated-area discussion was underway, it had fallen to the high 200s.