The nation-wide housing supply ratio in 2014 exceeded 100%, showing 108% in the local area, 97.9% in Seoul and 98.2% in the metropolitan area. If quasi-housing such as Gosiwon, welfare housing for the elderly, and studio apartments were included, the...
The nation-wide housing supply ratio in 2014 exceeded 100%, showing 108% in the local area, 97.9% in Seoul and 98.2% in the metropolitan area. If quasi-housing such as Gosiwon, welfare housing for the elderly, and studio apartments were included, the housing supply ratio would surpass 100% in Seoul and the metropolitan area. Accordingly, the empty houses are also increasing. The nation-wide number of empty house which was approximately 360,000 in 1995, has more than doubled in 2010.
The number of empty houses in Seoul increased from 39,086 in 1995 to 78,702 in 2010, highlighting the serious issues of empty houses and the following management system towrads it. Although Seoul metropolitan government enacted‘Ordinance on the Utilization and Management of Empty Houses in Seoul’and implemented an‘Empty House Revival Project’to cope with this issue, their effectiveness is still doubtful.
The purpose of this study is to provide a new form of maintenance and management system for empty houses. This study explores the issues of the current management and utilization system for empty houses in Seoul and UK. The details are shown as follows.
First, the study analyzed the current statistics of empty houses in Seoul and explored the cause of empty houses and their distributive characteristics in areas with the high empty house ratio. According to the housing census reports from 1995 to 2010, Nowon-gu was found as having the most amount of empty houses. The investigation on the administrative documents revealed the characteristics of their increase pattern. Transformed map data from address data show the distribution of the empty houses in the area. The greatest causes of these empty houses were the deterioration of residential areas for people forcefully deported as a result of urban redevelopment projects in the 1960s, speculative investment in real estate by people predicting rises in real estate prices through these redevelopment projects, and negligence from the delay in redevelopment projects. The distributive characteristics differed by district, but the empty rate spanned from 5% at the least to 24% at the most, indicating an extremely high density, with a considerable number of empty houses being small-scale detached houses with a total area of 20㎡~30㎡.
Second, an analysis of 12 years on the empty house statistics of the UK from 2004 to 2015 revealed that since 2010, the number of empty houses has drastically decreased. As an result of establishing an integrative management system through a segmentally phased enforcement guideline by the local government, based on an empty house maintenance subsidy policy and the legal grounds that resulted from the amendment of the central government’s building acts, housing acts and the local government act.
Third, the study suggested an improvement plan by comparing the empty house management systems between Seoul and the UK’s central and local government. Special Law on empty Houses’ which is scheduled to enact in 2017 is expected to formulate the legal grounds for the maintenance of empty houses and the investment of subsidies. The improvement plan based on the UK’s empty house management system includes a utilization plan involving small-scale reconstruction in the accumulated areas of empty houses. This policy may be utilized by inducing the use of empty houses through low-interest loans of the National Housing and Urban Fund, the forced demolition through government financial support of the demolition costs, and autonomous housing maintenance projects. Lastly, the study proposes the possibility of remodelling small scale empty studio apartments and small houses.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government should ascertain the accurate status of empty houses by building an empty house information system through the integration of the standard for the definition of empty houses because each borough has different definition on the empty house. It must also respond to the problem of empty houses by establishing a phased empty house management system involving ‘recommendation – inducement – management - forced implementation’. It must also find a new utilization plan depending on detailed guidelines, the current status and characteristics of empty house distribution. This study does not include the detailed guidelines for empty house management for each autonomous boroughs which is needed to supplemented in the futher study. Furthermore, a new empty house utilization model and detailed guideline should be established through the linkage among social enterprises, the Seoul Urban Housing Corporation, and the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, which will form a partnership with Seoul Metropolitan Government.