Seoul is expanding its policy to ease baseline floor-area ratio limits to include station-area long-term lease housing projects, raising expectations that redevelopment zones with approved plans can improve feasibility by reducing required rental housing shares.
The city said April 23 that station-area long-term lease housing sites already designated as redevelopment zones and with plans finalized will apply the eased baseline floor-area ratio at the later integrated review stage.
Under Seoul’s plan to promote station-area long-term lease housing, developers can receive up to a 30% increase in the baseline floor-area ratio through two steps. First, supplying at least 20% small homes of 60 square meters or less raises the baseline by 20%. An additional increase of up to 10% can be granted by applying a project profitability adjustment factor.
In the first project to apply the policy, the Singil station-area redevelopment in Yeongdeungpo District increased the number of units for sale to the public by 29, to 628 from 599. The area received approval for a revised redevelopment plan in 2024, and the change passed the city’s seventh integrated review committee for redevelopment projects on April 16. The adjustment factor applied was 1.45. The city calculates the figure by dividing Seoul’s average officially assessed land price by the project area’s average assessed price, then adding coefficients for site area and household density.
A Seoul official said that if the city eases the baseline floor-area ratio by up to 30%, the 20% portion is fixed, while the remaining 10% can vary depending on the adjustment factor. The official said the factor is intended to provide a boost when a project area’s assessed land price is lower than the city’s average for reconstruction and redevelopment.
Districts such as Seodaemun and Dongdaemun, where assessed land prices are below the average, are expected to benefit. A key example is the Hongje station-area long-term lease housing urban renewal-type redevelopment near Hongje Station on Seoul Subway Line 3 in Seodaemun District. The district opened a public review of a redevelopment plan in November to build a complex of 3,026 households. Of those, 392 would be redevelopment rental units and 784 public rental units, leaving 1,850 for general sale. If the baseline floor-area ratio is eased through the adjustment factor, the rental share could fall further.
In Dongdaemun District, the city on April 16 completed an official notice designating the redevelopment zone and finalizing the plan for the Sinimun 2 station-area long-term lease housing urban renewal-type redevelopment. The project calls for 1,200 households, including 115 rental units and 247 long-term lease units. The official said that with baseline floor-area ratio easing now applied to station-area long-term lease housing redevelopment, the average proportional rate is expected to rise by about 10%.
The profitability adjustment factor, however, will not apply in Seoul’s three Gangnam districts and Yongsan District. In the Wonhyoro 1-ga station-area long-term lease housing urban renewal-type redevelopment, for example, the project can receive only the 20% easing tied to supplying at least 20% small homes of 60 square meters or less. Even with that benefit, the project expects the rental share to shrink to 27% from 29%.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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