Seoul Offers 1.1x FAR Incentive for Senior Housing to Accelerate Supply

Deletion of Residential Restrictions such as Apartment Prohibition
in Sangbong Life Zone District-Unit Planning Area and Others

In line with the era of population aging, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has announced that it will ease the floor area ratio (FAR) by up to 1.1 times for the construction of 'Seoul-type senior housing' within 156 district-unit planning zones. The city aims to swiftly supply 12,000 units of senior housing by 2035.

Seoul City Hall. The Asia Business Daily DB

On July 23, the city disclosed that it had convened the 7th Urban Architecture Joint Committee's authority subcommittee and conditionally approved amendments to the district-unit plan resolutions to introduce FAR incentives for senior housing across the 156 designated planning zones.

The 'Seoul-type senior housing,' which supports seniors with a barrier-free residential environment along with various services such as health and leisure management, is a project the city is accelerating with a goal to supply 12,000 units by 2035. To vitalize the supply of senior housing, the city pushed for an across-the-board plan revision.

With this modification, a new incentive plan has been introduced that will allow relaxation of the base FAR under the district-unit plan (statutory FAR) by up to 1.1 times when 'Seoul-type senior housing' is developed within the 156 designated planning zones. For example, if the base FAR is 800% in a commercial area within a district-unit planning zone, building a 'Seoul-type senior housing' project will allow the FAR to be relaxed to up to 880%.

In particular, the FAR incentives can be immediately applied at the construction permit stage without the need for a separate district-unit plan modification process when implementing the project.

In addition to ensuring supply volume for senior housing through FAR relaxation, residential quality will also be enhanced by applying 'elder-friendly planning standards' to building design.

These 'elder-friendly planning standards' include key requirements for facilities that improve quality of life for seniors such as: support facilities (daycare centers, medical and exercise facilities, etc.), convenience facilities (barrier-free design), and designs that prevent social isolation.

Additionally, the city announced on the same day that it had conditionally approved amendments to the district-unit plan resolutions for 61 planning zones, aiming to revise restrictions on apartment buildings and the ratio of non-residential facilities.

To date, the Seoul district-unit planning system encouraged residential-mixed structures and introduced low-rise non-residential facilities in quasi-residential areas to activate street-level spaces. However, with the rise of online-driven consumption patterns resulting in increased commercial vacancies, and continuously rising housing demand within the city center, institutional improvements have become necessary.

The revised plan includes: the removal of the ban on 'apartment buildings' in 59 zones, abolishing the mandatory non-residential facility ratio (10-15%) in 5 zones, and abolishing the limit on allowable FAR for the residential portion in quasi-residential zones (previously capped at 250%) in 3 zones.

The city plans to finalize decisions on these revisions by the end of next month after additional public review, enabling immediate implementation of projects under the relaxed criteria via construction permitting procedures.

Kim Chang-kyu, Head of the Urban Space Headquarters at the Seoul Metropolitan Government, said, "Through the district-unit plans, we can now advance Seoul's core housing policies more rapidly," and added, "With this decision as an opportunity, we will pay close attention to improving residential welfare and quality of life for seniors from the urban planning stage, so as to proactively respond to the era of super-aged society."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.