Hwang Hee: Redevelopment approvals took up to 507 days — new 'deemed approval' rule to end that

Rep. Hwang Hee of the Democratic Party of Korea, who represents Yangcheon-gap in Seoul and sits on the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, said Wednesday that he introduced bills Tuesday to amend the Act on the Improvement of Urban Areas and Residential Environments and the Special Act on the Improvement of Vacant Houses and Small-Scale Housing. The bills aim to prevent administrative delays in redevelopment projects, ensure the timely supply of quality housing in city centers and resolve construction cost disputes.

Under current law, local government heads must decide whether to approve a redevelopment project's management and disposal plan or its project implementation plan within 60 days of receiving the application, and notify the applicant of that decision.

According to Hwang, because no legal sanctions or deemed-approval provisions apply when that deadline is missed, approval processing is often postponed indefinitely, delaying entire redevelopment schedules and disrupting housing supply.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, over the past five years the time needed to approve management and disposal plans for redevelopment projects under the Act on the Improvement of Urban Areas and Residential Environments — covering 100 project sites — reached as long as 507 days. Approval of project implementation plans for redevelopment projects under the Special Act on the Improvement of Vacant Houses and Small-Scale Housing, covering 127 project sites, also took as long as 284 days.

Those figures underlie persistent criticism that administrative delays are exceeding the legally mandated 60-day processing period by months, or even more than a year, across project sites.

The bills introduce a "deemed approval" system under which, if a local government head fails to process an approval within the legal deadline without valid cause, the approval is considered granted the day after that deadline expires. The measure is designed to block unnecessary administrative delays and significantly improve the speed and predictability of redevelopment projects.

Deemed approval refers to a system in which an applicant has filed a legally compliant approval request but the administrative authority takes no action — neither deciding on the approval nor notifying the applicant of an extension — within the designated processing period. In that case, the approval is automatically treated as granted under the law.

The mechanism is meant to prevent harm to the public caused by passive administration or unnecessary processing delays and to ensure procedural predictability. The approval takes legal effect immediately the day after the statutory processing period expires.

In addition, the amendment to the Special Act on Small-Scale Housing Improvement includes measures to prevent construction cost disputes between contractors and project operators stemming from recent increases in raw material prices. It allows project operators to request verification from a specialized institution when construction costs rise, and establishes a legal basis for local government heads to directly commission such verification when disputes or other specified circumstances arise, aiming to cut off conflicts caused by information asymmetry at the source.

"Even though the legal approval deadline is clearly specified, unlimited administrative delays have inflated project costs and pushed back housing supply, and union members and the public have had to bear that burden," Hwang said. "By speeding up redevelopment projects through the deemed-approval system and preventing disputes in advance through the construction cost verification system, I will make every effort to ensure that quality housing is supplied on time in city centers."