Bok Gi-wang of the Democratic Party of Korea — a lawmaker representing Asan in South Chungcheong Province and the ruling party's floor whip on the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee — and Jeong Dong-man of the People Power Party, representing Gijang-gun in Busan, jointly introduced a bill Thursday to overhaul the country's land registration system. The bill would expand it from a two-dimensional, surface-area-based framework to a three-dimensional "volumetric cadastral" system encompassing vertical space above and below ground.
The two lawmakers said rapid urbanization and advances in spatial technology have driven a surge in three-dimensional land use, with subways, underground roads, elevated highways and power transmission lines increasingly occupying above- and below-ground space. Institutional protections have also been tightening: an amendment to the National Land Planning Act passed by the full National Assembly in May made it mandatory to establish divided superficies rights for urban infrastructure such as underground parking lots and elevated roads.
The current cadastral system registers and manages only the horizontal position and area of land surfaces in two dimensions, leaving it unable to accurately record in public ledgers the complex vertical rights — such as divided superficies and actual facility occupancy — that exist above and below ground. The lawmakers said this gap has fueled persistent concerns over ownership disputes and infringement of property rights.
To address these shortcomings, the bill proposes three core measures: establishing a "volumetric space registry" to record rights spaces on the surface, above ground and below ground, along with facility status, volume and vertical extent; creating a legal basis for "volumetric cadastral surveying" to determine the location and boundaries of three-dimensional rights spaces; and introducing formal definitions for "volumetric boundary points" and "volumetric boundaries."
The lawmakers projected that the system would generate annual registration demand of roughly 42,000 cases and create a new surveying market worth 57.7 billion won ($41.1 million), giving a significant boost to the three-dimensional spatial information and surveying industry and creating jobs.
"Even as urban space has become three-dimensional — extending above and below ground — public ledgers have still been trapped in a two-dimensional plane, limiting the state's ability to fully protect citizens' property rights," Bok said. "Through this amendment, we will clearly disclose rights relationships above and below ground, dramatically raising the credibility of national public records and leaving no gap in the protection of citizens' property rights."
Jeong said the introduction of a volumetric cadastral system is "an essential national infrastructure innovation for efficiently and transparently managing future smart-city spaces," adding that the reform is expected to prevent land-use conflicts, improve public convenience and advance three-dimensional surveying technology.
The bill is designed to be rolled out in phases to minimize market disruption and the burden on the public. Rather than imposing blanket mandatory requirements from the outset, it would first apply — in conjunction with the existing property registration system — to public infrastructure projects where courts must establish divided superficies rights for partial land use, including urban rail lines, tunnels, underground roads, above- and below-ground power transmission lines, and elevated railways.
Once the system has taken stable hold in the market, the lawmakers said, it would be selectively expanded on a voluntary, application-based basis to cover private land and building rights such as superficies and possessory rights, state and public property management, and specific structures including bridges and offshore and maritime wind and solar power facilities.
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