New land minister Hong takes office, vows to accelerate 1.35 million housing units

President Lee Jae Myung has approved the appointment of Hong Ji-sun as minister of land, infrastructure and transport. With Lee reaffirming his commitment to housing price stability — declaring that day that "the era of a real estate speculation republic is now a thing of the past" — Hong faces the immediate task of translating the government's housing supply plan into concrete results.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Hong's first field visit after taking office will be to the Bucheon Daejang public housing district in Gyeonggi Province. Her inauguration ceremony is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the main conference room of Government Complex Sejong.

Hong takes office confronting a range of pressing issues, including expanding housing supply and stabilizing the jeonse and monthly rental markets. Her most immediate priority is bridging the gap between the government's announced supply targets and actual ground-breaking and move-in milestones.

The government has set a target of breaking ground on an average of 270,000 units per year in the Greater Seoul area — totaling 1.35 million new units by 2030 — under its housing supply expansion plan. The day before, it also announced a residential stability plan to deliver 1.19 million public housing units by 2030, encompassing public rental, public pre-sale and privately built rental units with public support. Of those, 77 percent, or 920,000 units, will be located in the metropolitan area. By type, the breakdown includes 350,000 units of publicly built rental housing, 310,000 units of purchased rental housing and 230,000 units of jeonse rental housing, along with 243,000 public pre-sale units.

With specific supply targets now on the table, the key question is how quickly the government can move planned volumes into active project stages. Hong has said she intends to draw on her experience in local government to push for faster permitting and approvals, strengthening the policy's execution.

At her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Hong said she would "mobilize the full capacity of both the public and private sectors to swiftly advance housing supply until the market feels it has enough, in the places people want to live." She added that she would "strengthen the housing ladder for the younger generation, including youth and newlyweds, and provide robust protection for housing-vulnerable groups such as the elderly and victims of jeonse fraud."

Cooperation with local governments is another challenge Hong must navigate to make the large-scale supply plan a reality. How effectively she can leverage her accumulated experience to accelerate the pace of supply is expected to determine the policy's success.

The dispute over housing development at Yongsan Park is a prime example of the friction with Seoul city government. Hong has described the park as "a site with great potential to swiftly deliver a substantial amount of residential space for younger and future generations," adding that "while the park's core areas should be preserved, it is necessary to examine the possibility of housing supply in peripheral spaces."

Seoul city government, however, has taken a firm opposing stance, saying it "cannot agree under any circumstances to using Yongsan Park as an apartment site" and that it will not yield "even one centimeter" to apartment construction. The city has also rejected the government's proposed alternative site at the Tancheon Water Reclamation Center, saying it "cannot agree to a single alternative supply site, including the Tancheon facility, unless the government abandons its plans for Yongsan Park," and that "the precondition for any alternative site is that no housing be built at Yongsan Park."

Hong is expected to soon begin coordinating a meeting with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, making the task of bridging the two sides' differences over Yongsan Park and other housing supply issues one of her earliest tests in office.