“Our top priority in management will be to increase the speed of housing supply. To enhance supply speed, we need to improve systems and encourage voluntary participation from employees,” said Lee Seong-hoon, President of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), during his first press conference since taking office on August 6 in Gwanghwamun, Seoul.
He noted, “Due to a lack of construction in recent years, the upcoming supply will be very limited,” adding that “the public land development has also been somewhat sluggish, so it is crucial to significantly increase this to ensure the public feels the impact.”
LH plans to reorganize its management structure, including personnel, finance, accounting, promotions, and performance management, to align with the goal of increasing supply speed. Previously, procedures were sequential, but the new plan aims to expedite legally permissible stages as much as possible.
Lee explained, “If we have been following a linear process where Stage A must be completed before moving to Stage B, we will now parallelize A, B, and C. We will also start the appraisal for compensation before all preceding procedures are completed, as much as possible.”
He identified land compensation as the biggest bottleneck delaying supply. With an increase in compensation demands for new public land and third-phase new towns, he believes that the existing workforce alone cannot meet the government's required supply speed. LH plans to significantly increase temporary workers with experience in compensation tasks and will offer higher pay if necessary.
“The stage that takes the longest time until construction begins is compensation,” Lee said. “To drastically shorten the compensation period, we will rapidly increase temporary staff and deploy experienced personnel.” Currently, LH is discussing improvement measures for laws and systems that delay compensation procedures with relevant agencies, including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Lee emphasized the need to change the existing evaluation system, which penalizes public enterprises for actively investing to expand supply. “In the past, management evaluations were designed to discourage aggressive investment and strictly manage debt,” he pointed out. “If we work hard to increase supply speed, we end up being at a disadvantage in evaluations.”
He questioned, “Why should we not be evaluated for expanding the housing supply that the public desires?” and stated that he is actively urging government departments to ensure that supply investments do not negatively impact management evaluations.
To expand urban supply, LH will also convert its Seoul Regional Headquarters building in Gangnam into youth housing. This building has been in use since 1973 as the headquarters of the Korea Housing Corporation, and the specific number of housing units and development methods will be determined in consultation with government departments and permitting agencies.
Lee stated, “As a result of finding ways for LH to take the lead, we have decided to provide the Seoul Regional Headquarters as housing for young people.”
Additionally, he identified restoring the honor of LH's organization as a top priority. “I want to restore the honor of most LH members,” he said, adding, “We will completely sever ties with corruption, misconduct, and abuse of power, and we will take strict action if any issues arise.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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