Seoul eases district-unit plan rules, adds floor-area-ratio incentive for senior housing

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is lifting a broad set of restrictions on apartment construction within district-unit planning zones and introducing a new floor-area-ratio incentive to accelerate the supply of "Seoul-type senior housing." The move aims to expand the city's capacity to build homes in urban areas while speeding up the delivery of housing tailored to elderly residents as South Korea enters a super-aged society.

The city said Thursday it approved — with modifications — a revision to district-unit plans that reorganizes apartment use prohibitions and non-residential facility ratios across 61 district-unit planning zones. The decision came at the seventh session of the Joint Urban and Architecture Committee's delegated subcommittee, held Wednesday.

The core of the revision is eliminating regulations that have unreasonably restricted apartment construction within district-unit plans. Across 61 zones — including the Hoehyeon district-unit planning zone — prohibitions on apartment use and mandatory non-residential facility requirements will be abolished.

Seoul had long encouraged the inclusion of non-residential facilities on lower floors and mixed-use residential development in quasi-residential areas, citing goals such as activating street-level activity. The city said the need for reform grew as the spread of online shopping increased commercial vacancies while demand for urban housing rose.

In January last year, Seoul announced the abolition and relaxation of non-residential facility ratios in commercial and quasi-residential zones as its first deregulation measure, eliminating the 10 percent non-residential facility ratio for quasi-residential zones under district-unit plan establishment standards. In May of the same year, it abolished across the board the quasi-residential non-residential facility ratios that had applied to 178 existing district-unit planning zones.

Some district-unit planning zones, however, had been set up with the original goal of fostering commercial and business activity, meaning they either barred apartments outright or allowed only apartments combined with non-residential facilities — a situation critics said was undermining the effect of the earlier reforms.

The revision addresses this by covering 59 zones where apartments will be removed from the list of prohibited uses, five zones where mandatory non-residential facility ratios of 10 to 15 percent will be abolished, and three zones where the cap limiting the allowable floor-area ratio for residential portions in quasi-residential areas to 250 percent or below will be lifted.

Seoul expects the changes to open up apartment construction in areas where it had previously been restricted within district-unit planning zones, laying the groundwork for expanded housing supply in the city center. The revision will go through a re-public-notice process before being officially announced at the end of next month, after which it will take immediate effect for building permits and other approvals.

A separate revision to district-unit plans aimed at expanding senior housing supply was also approved. Seoul will introduce floor-area-ratio incentives for Seoul-type senior housing across 156 zones, including the Sangbong residential hub district-unit planning zone.

Seoul-type senior housing is a residential model for elderly residents that combines a barrier-free living environment with health and leisure management services, developed in anticipation of the city's entry into a super-aged society. Seoul aims to supply 12,000 units of Seoul-type senior housing by 2035.

Under the revision, developers who build Seoul-type senior housing within the 156 district-unit planning zones will be eligible for a floor-area-ratio relaxation of up to 1.1 times the standard ratio set in the district-unit plan. For example, in a commercial zone with a standard floor-area ratio of 800 percent, a Seoul-type senior housing project would be allowed a ratio of up to 880 percent.

Developers will also be able to apply the incentive directly at the building permit stage without going through a separate district-unit plan revision process. Seoul expects this to accelerate the supply of various forms of senior housing, including elderly welfare housing and long-term general private rental housing.

Residential quality standards will also be introduced alongside the incentive. Seoul-type senior housing will be subject to "elderly-friendly planning standards" requiring support facilities such as day-care centers and medical and fitness facilities, as well as barrier-free design, communal spaces, and smart-home device integration to prevent social isolation.

In April, Seoul laid additional groundwork for boosting senior housing supply through an amendment to district-unit plan establishment standards, which included provisions for upgrading land-use zones and easing public-contribution rates when senior housing is built.

"This comprehensive overhaul is part of Seoul's policy to expand housing supply, and we will do everything we can to move the process forward quickly," said Kim Chang-gyu, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Urban Space Bureau. "We hope this decision will revitalize Seoul's construction economy and promote the supply of high-quality housing."

He added that district-unit plans would now allow the city to advance its core housing policies with greater momentum. "We will pay close attention to improving elderly residential welfare and quality of life from the urban planning stage so that we can proactively respond to a super-aged society," he said.