Seoul cuts reconstruction association formation period from 1 year to 4 months

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will cut the time required to form a housing redevelopment association from one year to about four months. The city plans to accelerate project timelines by allowing association formation procedures to begin at the promotion committee stage — before a redevelopment zone is officially designated — and by shortening the period for notifying residents of estimated cost contributions and handling objections.

The city announced Wednesday that it had drawn up the measures, titled the "Association Formation Process Acceleration Plan," and began implementing them Tuesday. The plan has been distributed to all 25 autonomous districts for on-the-ground application.

The measures follow recent amendments to relevant laws and the city's enactment of Regulation Abolition Order No. 142, which together allow promotion committees to be formed earlier, before a redevelopment zone is designated. Under the new framework, zones that have already secured the 75 percent resident consent rate required for association formation may begin drafting bylaws and selecting officers in parallel, even before zone designation is finalized.

Previously, all procedures for forming an association had to proceed sequentially after a redevelopment zone was designated. The process required disbursing public support subsidies, securing resident consent, drafting bylaws and selecting officers, notifying residents of estimated cost contributions, handling objections and holding a founding general meeting — steps that together set the standard processing period at 365 days.

Going forward, once a promotion committee is formed early and resident consent reaches 75 percent, association-related work can begin before zone designation. After designation, the notification of estimated cost contributions and the founding general meeting will run simultaneously, compressing the overall timeline.

The period for notifying residents of estimated cost contributions and processing objections — previously more than 60 days after zone designation — will be cut to 30 days, in line with the public inspection period, and will run concurrently with the founding general meeting. As a result, the standard processing period from zone designation to association formation is expected to fall from 365 days to about 120 days, a reduction of 245 days.

The city expects the streamlined procedures to speed up association formation and subsequent project progress, particularly in redevelopment zones with high resident consent rates and strong momentum. The plan will also help the city meet its target of supplying 310,000 housing units through redevelopment projects by 2031.

"This improvement will reduce the time from zone designation to association formation from up to 365 days to around 120 days," said Myeong No-jun, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Housing Bureau. "For zones with high resident consent rates, we will boldly cut administrative procedures to advance projects and pick up the pace toward our goal of supplying 310,000 units by 2031."