Seoul to Put All Road Land in "Land Transaction Permit Zones"... Preemptively Curb Speculative Deals

Limited to land classified as "roads"... Designated for one year

Curb speculative share-splitting driven by development expectations

Provided by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will designate all land classified as roads across Seoul as land transaction permit zones. The measure aims to proactively curb speculative transactions, such as splitting road ownership into small shares.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on October 8 that it had held its 16th Urban Planning Committee meeting on October 7 and decided to newly designate land classified as roads throughout Seoul as land transaction permit zones.

Since September 2024, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has designated privately owned alleyways in development project areas, including Moa Town projects, as land transaction permit zones to curb speculative transactions involving private roads.

However, as speculative transactions such as the splitting of road ownership into shares have recently emerged even in areas with little connection to development projects, the city expanded the zones to cover roads throughout Seoul to proactively address the issue.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government explained, "The land transaction permit process allows us to check the purpose of acquisition and the planned use before a transaction takes place," adding, "We expect this will help prevent the spread of speculative share transactions driven by expectations of development."

Designation as a land transaction permit zone does not mean that all road sales are prohibited. Permission to sell may be granted for a legitimate transaction if a genuine need for use is recognized and the transaction meets the approval criteria under relevant laws and regulations.

The land transaction permit zone designation will take effect on October 17 and remain in place for one year. The period was set to assess the effects of the designation and its impact on transactions by people with genuine demand. The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to review how the system is operated, taking market conditions and transaction circumstances into account.

Details of the designated areas and the designation period will be available in a notice to be published in the Seoul Metropolitan Government Gazette on October 12.

Myeong No-jun, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Housing Office, said, "This designation is not intended to restrict legitimate road transactions. It is a measure to screen out speculative transactions in advance, such as repeatedly trading road shares after dividing them into smaller portions." He added, "We will operate the system so that legitimate transactions based on genuine demand are not inconvenienced."

The Seoul Metropolitan Government also made partial adjustments to the boundaries of land transaction permit zones to facilitate the smooth progress of three housing redevelopment projects under its Rapid Integrated Planning program.

As a result, the area around 3-191 Bukgajwa-dong in Seodaemun-gu was expanded from 77,001.2 square meters to 80,940 square meters; the area around 445 Bulgwang-dong in Eunpyeong-gu, from 89,536.8 square meters to 96,624.5 square meters; and the area around 15 Yongdap-dong in Seongdong-gu, from 95,889.5 square meters to 96,210.8 square meters. The designation periods will remain unchanged.

In a land transaction permit zone, anyone seeking to enter into a contract to transfer or establish ownership or superficies rights to land exceeding the area threshold must obtain permission from the head of the relevant district office. Permission is required for transactions involving more than 6 square meters in residential areas and more than 15 square meters in commercial or industrial areas.

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