President Lee Jae-myung announced he will use a helicopter to scout potential land sites across the Seoul metropolitan area to increase housing supply [1].
This move signals a shift in the administration's strategy to address the housing crisis by prioritizing new land development over the renovation of existing urban structures.
Lee said that traditional reconstruction and redevelopment projects do not provide a significant boost to the overall housing supply [1]. He said that these projects often require a large number of current residents to relocate, which can actually lead to a decrease in the total number of available households [2].
To accelerate the availability of new homes, the president set a goal to halve the construction period for the third-generation new cities in the metropolitan area [1]. The administration aims to reduce the typical five-year construction timeline to approximately two and a half years [1].
Lee intends to personally identify viable locations for these developments from the air to ensure rapid execution of the plan. "I am thinking of flying around the metropolitan area in a helicopter now," Lee said. "I intend to look at everything" [2].
By bypassing traditional bureaucratic site surveys in favor of direct aerial observation, the president is emphasizing a sense of urgency in stabilizing the housing market [1]. The administration believes that the limited short-term effects of redevelopment make aggressive new land acquisition a more viable path for increasing the city's residential capacity [2].
“I am thinking of flying around the metropolitan area in a helicopter now. I intend to look at everything”
The president's focus on new land development over urban redevelopment suggests a belief that the housing shortage cannot be solved within existing urban footprints. By attempting to cut the construction timeline for new cities by 50%, the administration is prioritizing speed and volume of supply to dampen price volatility in the Seoul metropolitan region.
