LH overhauls quality management for apartment defects

Korea Land and Housing Corporation said Wednesday it will significantly strengthen quality management across all stages of apartment construction — from pre-completion inspections to post-move-in repairs — to minimize defects and resolve resident complaints more quickly.

The state housing developer said its sustained efforts to improve housing quality have led to a sharp decline in "major defects" across its public sale, convertible public rental and long-term public rental apartment complexes. Major defects are structural problems such as cracks, subsidence and water leaks in key load-bearing elements that pose serious risks to safety or significantly disrupt residents' daily lives.

Major defects peaked at 534 cases across 47,863 units in 2022, then fell sharply to 71 cases across 22,006 units in 2025. As of the first half of this year, the figure stands at 40 cases across 22,290 units.

Overall defect reports per unit, however, rose from 5.1 in 2022 to 11.5 in 2025, as social expectations for residential quality have risen and pre-move-in unit inspections have become more thorough. The trend has since reversed, with the rate falling to 8.0 defects per unit as of the end of June this year.

LH said it takes the overall increase in defect reports seriously and is pursuing targeted remedies focused on the construction categories with the highest defect rates.

As of the end of June this year, the most common defect categories were wallpapering (20 percent), windows and doors (18 percent), flooring (11 percent), furniture (11 percent) and tiling (9 percent). In response, LH is expanding the use of corrugated cardboard protective coverings to prevent wallpaper staining and has introduced scratch- and stain-resistant sheet panel options for some walls.

To reduce window frame sagging and vibration, LH has narrowed frame widths by improving insulation performance and is also reviewing the expansion of lower fixing hardware to strengthen stability. The corporation is also pursuing a phased shift in bathroom tiling from wet to dry finishing methods.

Alongside faster repairs for defects that do occur, LH has also strengthened preventive management to identify and address potential defect factors before completion.

Since the beginning of this year, LH has introduced a "pre-completion quality consulting" program covering all upcoming completion sites, in which LH, contractors, supervisors and customer service specialists conduct joint on-site inspections to review major defects and areas requiring improvement. The corporation is also using an AI-based mobile defect reporting system and a digital completion quality manual to systematically track each case from initial report through to completed repair.

To promote accountability among contractors and supervisors, LH has strengthened institutional measures by incorporating defect repair rates and processing times into performance evaluations. Companies that fall below the benchmark score or show poor defect-handling records receive a "quality deficiency notice" and face deductions in future bid evaluations, with sanctions applied to ensure quality management responsibility from the construction stage onward.

"Despite the meaningful progress in reducing major defects directly tied to safety, we take seriously the fact that overall defect numbers had been rising," an LH official said. "We will do our utmost to prevent defects thoroughly and resolve them swiftly, in a way that residents can actually feel."

Meanwhile, LH said it plans to supply more than 20,000 purchased rental housing units across all 25 autonomous districts of Seoul over the next three years.