KRIHS 40TH ANNIVERSARY SYMPOSIUM
Past 40 years of urban development was like a miracle. I get to work on a lot of
urban development projects in developing countries, and in most cases these
countries lack relevant legal mechanisms.
Our country has been progressively
improving our legal systems. We’ve also
established an organization like LH, setting
a good example for developing nations.
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are one of the major obstacles to urban planning and development. Yet, solutions are hard to come by.
Some people call for an implementation of the public concept of land ownership but that’s unrealistic.
Yet, the past 40 years of urban development was like a miracle. I get to work on a lot of urban development projects in developing countries, and in most cases these countries lack relevant legal mechanisms. Our country has been progressively improving our legal systems. We’ve also established an organization like LH, setting a good example for developing nations.
I believe that there have been more merits than drawbacks of our urban policies over the past 40 years. My only concern is how long the current way of urban development, mainly led by the central government, can hold up. The urban development policies have now transitioned into urban renewal, but we have few experts in the area. This is something we have to address going forward.
Choe Byungsun: The issues regarding land aren’t always clear cut. Isn’t land an essential element for human life? That makes land policies inseparable from policies in other areas. As I look back on the history of our modern land policy after the Japanese colonial rule, real estate regulatory and deregulatory measures took turns every ten years. Some people call it the
ten-KRIHS has made a substantial contribution to our national territorial policy over the last 40 years. Now we need to prepare for the future and propose appropriate countermeasures. Basic research on changing public awareness is essential.
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year-cycle. Urban Planning Law also changes every ten years. Since this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers crash, we may have to brace ourselves for another change. I think the basic framework for our land policies is established, after so many ups and downs over the past 40 years. And I believe that we can successfully deal with any future changes. One thing we should keep in mind is that we are entering into a whole new era. Urbanization has been done, and our demographics completely changed.
I even have this wild thought that we may be heading back to a nomadic lifestyle. People will no longer flock to cities. Instead, we will see an increase in the migration of the population from urban to rural areas.
Our economy is slowing down, and people’s attitudes toward life have changed.
Ahn Kunhyuk: We can’t leave out the Green Belt as we talk about the history of the land sector. In the 1970s, the population crowded into metropolitan areas, which prompted the government to establish green belt zones around Seoul in 1971.
Until 1977, 14 cities, including the Yeocheon district, were designated as greed belt land after eight rounds of enforcement. Green belt areas were strictly managed until the late President Kim Daejung eased the restrictions to improve convenience for the
residents, based on KRIHS’ research. And the Lee Myungbak administration removed the ban on most areas. Now there are only a few remaining.
Lee Jungsik: KRIHS played an important role in removing green belt. There were public hearings on green belt removal in each of the five metropolitan areas, where they faced fierce backlashes from many environmental organizations and interest groups. Some people threw raw eggs at the podium and even brought feces. KRIHS took up the mantle to mediate conflicts between stakeholders on behalf of the government.
The hearing on the merger between Korea Housing Corporation and Korea Land Corporation, and the one on the West Coast Development Plan were also challenging tasks. All the members of our Institute put an enormous amount of effort.
Choe Byungsun: KRIHS has made a substantial contribution to our national territorial policy over the last 40 years. Now we need to prepare for the future and propose appropriate countermeasures. Basic research on changing public awareness is essential.
Also, we need to study the impacts of the fourth industrial revolution on national territory. We need to take a more proactive approach.
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Lee Kunyoung: Let’s look 40 years ahead. I think the most serious problem we have today is reconstruction.
What will happen to the vast stretches of apartment buildings after forty years? Apartment buildings are getting taller while the population is shrinking.
Reconstructions should be done on a reasonable scale;
It is concerning that the concept of urban renewal has faded into building luxurious high-rise apartments.
Is Seoul, full of 35-story apartments, what we need in the 22nd century? What will the city look like after 40 years? If we don’t decrease the floor area ratio, our cities may disappear.
Lee Jungsik: Given that the floor area ratio already reached 300% for apartments in Gangnam, requiring other areas to lower their floor area ratio will draw opposition from most people. For newly-constructed apartment buildings, it could be possible for the Urban Planning Commission or the Landscape Commission to adjust the ratio. But the same is not applicable to reconstruction cases, where we have to consider profitability.
Cheo Byungsun: In the mid ’90s, the floor area ratio was at around 400%. In the process of reorganizing the previously ten categories of the land use area into five, 400% floor area ratio was applied for
semi-Let’s look 40 years ahead. I think the most serious problem we have today is Apartment buildings that are rising taller while the population is shrinking.
Reconstructions should be done on a reasonable scale; If we don’t decrease the floor area ratio, our cities may disappear.
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agricultural areas, and it became the source of reckless land development. The shifting inter-Korean relations will cause changes in our national land and territorial policies. We need to use this momentum as an opportunity for a fundamental reform.
Ahn Kunhyuk: The problem can only be solved by raising public awareness and living standards so that people will be fond of living in rural areas. The history of urban planning and construction standards show that the focus has been on high-density development.
Given its impact on people’s lives, it’s hard for an administration, in preparation for the next election, to go by the rules and lower the floor area ratio.
Kim Jungho: Young people these days are reluctant to get married or give birth due to soaring housing prices driven by reconstruction. This is also a big problem. It will be helpful to conduct a study on the hypothesis that suggests a correlation between high-rise, high-density housing culture and shrinking population. I’m sure the hypothesis will be verified.
It will be easier for the government to convince the public about the floor area ratio based on the result.
Kang Hyunsoo: High land prices for sure contribute to population decline. There has been a research on it.
Kim Jungho: From what I see, most of the high-rise apartments in Gangnam will be rental apartments in twenty years. Even now, they are mostly leased out. Surprisingly, there are many people who made investments based on their blind faith in Gangnam area but now feel that they are living in a poor, inconvenient living condition. Also, it is said that around 40% of the Gangnam residents are from other areas. Once education conditions are standardized across the country and GNI per capita exceeds
$40,000, who on earth, other than young city workers, will want to live in Gangnam? I think the “location doesn’t lie” blind faith mentality is something that real estate developers and the media created to incite speculation. It will soon be gone.
Lee Kunyoung: It makes sense to raise the floor area ratio up to a point where the profit offsets the reconstruction cost. But I think it is wrong for those who previously owned a large flat that is subject to reconstruction to be allowed to have two new small apartments. Of course, there are many things to consider, but aren’t small size apartments popular these days? Only those who own reconstruction housing are getting richer.
Ahn Kunhyuk: Today’s 30-pyeong apartment is
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equivalent to a 50-pyeong apartment in the old days. There are two reasons for this. First, we use a different method of calculation to measure the area of a building now. These days, we measure the area excluding the width of the walls. Using the old way, the area will be 5% bigger.
Second, most apartment buildings these days are 4-bay. With balcony remodeling, the total area will significantly increase. With the extended balconies combined, the total area will be as large as a 50-pyeong apartment in the old days. A recently-built 20-pyeong apartment is almost as large as a 40-pyeong unit in Eunma or Mido apartment, both of which were built thirty years ago. That’s why we hear small
apartments are popular these days, because they are, in fact, medium-to-large size.
Kang Hyunsoo: So far, we have discussed our achievements and regrets of the past 40 years of national territorial policy. Now, I would like you to touch upon the future direction and the role of KRIHS by area, or in general.
Lee Jungsik: I would like to summarize it into four points. First, we need so prepare for the urbanization of the entire country. Through the Renaissance of large provincial cities we must integrate metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. Second, we need to meet
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the challenges of climate change. We need to come up with policies that encompass the areas of national territory and renewable energy. Third, we need to improve people’s quality of life. Jeffery Sachs once proposed the idea of GNH (Gross National Happiness). As such, we should implement differentiated support measures to ensure happiness for all, through balanced regional development. Lastly, we need more studies on soft power, which is the power of informatics, culture and arts. I wish that KRIHS can further expand the scope our research on these areas.
Ahn Kunhyuk: I would like to stress the importance of education. We need to educate the public about the importance of our future national territory. If we don’t take proper measures now, we will find our skylines reshaped with 60-story, 70-story apartment buildings in the future. It will be hard to reverse the course then. In the beginning of the 20th century, after the famous Master Plan — or the Burnham Plan — of Chicago was formulated, the authorities made educational materials for the citizens and also distributed the urban planning handbooks at a low cost. They had children from 5th grade educated about the project and thus successfully raised people’s awareness of it.
We didn’t have that education. Most people probably don’t know who established the Comprehensive National Territorial Plan or what it is about. Also, the future of our city or what our land must look like in the future have never been the topic of a public debate. Although smart cities are gaining attention, there has never been a consensus on it. It is on KRIHS to do more research on this topic.
Kim Jungho: I will briefly touch upon a few things.
First, we need to do more research on how to make the public perceive homes as consumer goods rather than as assets. In other words, we need to help them understand that a house is not a means to increase their asset, but rather is a service that provides them with a residential area, and that speculation is a zero-sum game. Second, we should study the inverse relationship between the low birth rate and apartments. Apartments may not be the direct cause of the low birth rate but we may be able to confirm the hypothesis that they are one major cause. Once verified, housing policies can make significant contributions to addressing the issues of low birth rate. I believe that this is something our Institute will have to statistically verify through research. Moreover, we need to diversify the types of home ownership in the medium-to long-term
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perspective. It will also be meaningful to do research on encouraging competition among cities by making them vie for the title of “most livable city.” To do so, we need regionalized housing policies so that each region can foster their own residential culture.
Under the current one-size-fits-all housing policies, mainly driven by the central government, provincial cities and small or medium sized cities in particular are largely disregarded. As a result, we often see high-rise apartment buildings standing alongside the dry fields and paddies. These types of problems can only be solved when we have an informed public and a vital competition between local governments. Lastly, we need to do more research on the housing welfare delivery system. It’s impossible for the central and local governments to meet 100% of the housing welfare demand of the low-income group. As in developed countries, the private sector and charities should share the burden.
Research on the welfare delivery system is of particular importance when we factor in the unification of the Korean Peninsula, because we need to develop plans to solve the housing problems of the northern regions once we’re reunited.
Choe Byungsun: In our national territorial policy, the management and regulations of land use are too
complicated. There are 128 different laws that define regions, districts, and zones. In Germany, everything regarding national territory — including regions, cities, land, and SOC — are managed by a single book of construction law. In contrast, how many laws do we have? We need to reorganize our laws and make them more simple and transparent.
Kim Jungho: What we can do is to remove the parent laws. You see, the current laws have branched out from the parent laws. We won’t have true deregulation unless we remove those laws.
Choe Byungsun: To add one more thing, we need to increase property tax. and ensure that posted prices are more transparent. We’re working on it but we should speed up the process. The restitution of
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development gain is also important. These are my thoughts on current issues. Regarding our future path, we need to do more research on how the changes in circumstances will impact national territory. All countries underwent changes in their territory and built new systems during the 150 years after industrial revolution. Another 100 years have passed since then and it means that a new era is coming. shouldn’t we make diverse scenarios of our future and examine them? I truly hope that KRIHS will take on this job and carry out an in-depth research.
Ahn Kunhyuk: So far, what you have spoken about are the things that the central government and KRIHS should do, but I want to think about it from a different perspective. Isn’t it possible that someday the local governments will take the lead and their residents will be the main actors? It will be increasingly important to support the local governments to improve their planning and implementation capacities. We need to foster outstanding planners as civil servants, deploy them to regional areas, and create a stable environment for them to carry out urban planning.
Lee Jungsik: I agree with Prof. Ahn Kunhyuk.
KRIHS has focused on government-friendly research for the past 40 years. The next 40 years will have to
be spent on public-friendly research endeavors. In terms of policy proposals, we need to help the public better understand the policies through education and promotion. It will also be meaningful to find something we can do to help local governments enhance their planning and implementation capacities.
Kim Jungho: First of all, we should conduct a lot more joint research projects with other public/
private research institutions in order to improve efficiency. For instance, if we conduct research on housing finance or taxation, we can cooperate with Korea Institute of Finance or Korea Institute of Public Finance. If it is on housing business, we can work with KDI. Moreover, we need to maintain close relationship with researchers in regional areas and conduct joint studies with them. Most importantly, it is crucial that we explore and develop a distinctive housing culture in each region. To do so, we need to differentiate the policies and supporting measures for each region. I believe that joint research is a great way to enhance the research capacity of the researchers in regional areas.
Kang Hyunsoo: Thank you for your great comments today. We will make more short and easy informative booklets for the public, and keep trying our best.