Experts see no clear solution for South Korea housing market

Experts said there is no clear answer for the South Korean real estate market heading into the second half of the year.

This uncertainty persists because government supply policies lack clear signals while the availability of new land for development has dwindled. Without a definitive strategy to increase housing inventory, the market remains volatile and unpredictable for both buyers and developers.

Yoon Ji-hae, head of the Research Lab at Real Estate 114, said that discovering new land for development is difficult. This difficulty has been acknowledged by the president, according to Yoon [1, 2]. She said that some efforts to find suitable sites have even involved officials surveying land from helicopters [1, 2].

Yoon said that redevelopment and reconstruction projects have limited impact on the overall housing supply. Because these methods cannot meet the scale of demand, the focus must shift to existing resources that can be deployed more rapidly.

According to Yoon, the Third Generation New Cities represent the most viable available resource for increasing housing [1, 2]. Specifically, the Gwangmyung-Siheung district project is highlighted as a primary vehicle for growth. That project alone is expected to provide approximately 70,000 housing units [1, 2].

Accelerating these new-town projects is viewed as the fastest way to add significant housing stock to the market. By prioritizing these large-scale developments, the government can bypass the slow process of land discovery and the limited reach of urban reconstruction.