This study aims to explore legislative reform measures to activate the supply of service-providing senior housing utilizing urban state- and publicly owned idle properties, with a focus on the entry into a super-aged society, changing family structure...
This study aims to explore legislative reform measures to activate the supply of service-providing senior housing utilizing urban state- and publicly owned idle properties, with a focus on the entry into a super-aged society, changing family structures, and the emergence of "middle-income seniors" as a new housing demand class. While the core value of contemporary senior housing centers around "Aging in Place" (AIP)—allowing older adults to spend their later years in familiar communities—the current legislative framework is dichotomized into public rental housing for low-income groups and expensive private luxury retirement communities (silver towns), leaving a complete absence of housing alternatives for middle-income seniors. In response, this study analyzes the limitations of existing laws by focusing on utilizing "state- and publicly owned idle properties," including public land and relocated sites of public institutions, which can drastically reduce land acquisition costs.
The research findings reveal several structural constraints within the current legal system. First, under the State Property Act and the Public Property and Commodity Management Act, short-term lease periods (up to 20 or 5 years), the prohibition on constructing permanent facilities, and market-linked lease fee calculation methods fundamentally block long-term private investments. Second, senior welfare housing under the Senior Welfare Act suffers from regulatory confusion due to its dual legal status as both a "welfare facility" and a "dwelling," and its supply structure has become rigid following the abolition of the condominium-style ownership (sales) system. To overcome these limitations, this study conducts a comparative legal review of Japan and Germany. Japan’s "Service-Providing Senior Housing" system has diversified supply entities through registration and subsidies. At the same time, Germany utilizes the "heritable building right" (Erbbaurecht) to separate public land ownership from private building ownership, structurally lowering housing costs.
Based on these analyses, this study proposes three legislative reform measures. First, it suggests the enactment of a tentatively named Special Act on the Supply of Senior Service Housing Utilizing State and Public Idle Properties to secure legal foundations by guaranteeing lease periods of up to 50 years, permitting permanent facilities, and offering rent reductions linked to public interest purposes. Second, it recommends the establishment of an independent legal category under the Senior Welfare Act, specifically creating an "Urban Service-Providing Senior Housing" category to prevent regulatory confusion, along with an integrated licensing framework co-administered by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Third, it proposes the construction of a financial and tax interlocking system through the legalization of a housing annuity-linked monthly fee payment model, tax incentives to activate Senior Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), and low-interest loan support through the National Housing Urban Fund to ensure supply and demand sustainability.
Finally, this study holds academic and policy significance by reinterpreting the housing rights of middle-income seniors as a combined constitutional right to housing and health, and by presenting concrete legislative models for the utilization of state- and publicly owned idle properties.