One year after the government announced its '9·7 Housing Supply Expansion Plan' to address the housing shortage in the metropolitan area, the pace of construction has not met expectations. The target for this year is to start 268,000 homes, but as of July, only 78,000 had begun, falling short of 30% of the annual goal.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the government set a goal last September to start a total of 1.35 million homes in the metropolitan area from this year through 2030, averaging 270,000 homes per year. The plan emphasized 'construction starts' as a key management indicator to reflect discrepancies between permits and actual housing supply. The strategy included expanding direct implementation by the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) on public land and utilizing aging public buildings and vacant sites to accelerate supply.
However, as of July, cumulative construction in the metropolitan area reached only 78,894 homes, which is 29.1% of the annual target. This represents a mere 2.0% increase compared to the same period last year, when 76,339 homes were started.
To meet this year's goal, approximately 190,000 homes must be started between August and December. This figure is 2.1 times the performance of the same period last year and exceeds the total number of homes started last year, making it unlikely that the target will be achieved.
In the past three years, construction performance from January to July in the metropolitan area has consistently exceeded 45% of the annual total. In 2023, it accounted for 51.5%, while in 2024 and 2025, it was 48.6% and 45.8%, respectively. Historically, nearly half of the annual target has been met by July, indicating that significantly more construction must occur in the remaining months to reach this year's goal.
Last year, construction from August to December in the metropolitan area totaled 90,484 homes, with an annual total of 166,823 homes. This year, with performance similar to last year by July, the remaining five months must see more construction than the entire previous year.
According to data released by National Assembly member Jeong Hee-yong on August 24, there are 111 districts nationwide where housing has received project approval but has not yet begun construction, totaling 209,270 homes. Of these, 79.9% are classified as having 'immature land conditions' due to issues such as land compensation and infrastructure development. Additionally, 23,802 homes approved before 2022 remain unstarted.
Legislation related to the 9·7 plan, including the special law for the redevelopment of aging public buildings and amendments to the public housing special law, only passed the National Assembly last month, 11 months after the plan was announced. Projects for utilizing vacant urban land, also proposed in the 9·7 plan, are still in the pre-construction phase. These projects are unlikely to contribute significantly to this year's construction shortfall.
The government maintains that a substantial portion of public housing construction is scheduled for the second half of the year, and it will monitor performance through the end of the year. In the rapid housing supply measures announced on August 13, additional strategies were introduced to shorten the project timelines for public land and expedite the start dates for existing sites.
Ham Young-jin, head of the real estate research lab at Woori Bank, stated, 'The number of construction starts has remained at a similar level to last year's first half, around 65,000 homes, so it cannot be considered fast-paced. To achieve the goals, significant acceleration is needed in the second half.'
Seo Jin-hyung, a professor of real estate law at Kwangwoon University, noted, 'Even if construction is concentrated at the end of the year, land must be secured, making it difficult to significantly boost performance in the short term. Given the current situation, it will be realistically challenging to meet the annual construction targets set by the government.'
* This article has been translated by AI.
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