Despite President Lee’s Call to Speed Up Third New Towns, Move-Ins at Wangsuk 2 and Gyosan Delayed by Over 2 Years

President Lee: "90% to Begin Construction by 2030"
Just 41% of This Year's Construction Start Target Met
Namyangju Wangsuk 2 Move-In Delayed by 26 Months
MOLIT and LH Launch "Ultra-Fast Construction-Start Model"

The first move-in dates for the Third New Towns have been delayed by anywhere from several months to more than two years compared with the original plans. The delays stem from various issues that emerge during the project phase. President Lee Jae-myung has urged officials to speed up the projects because he believes that bringing forward the dates when people can actually move into their homes is essential to making housing supply policies more tangible. As the Third New Towns are a major pillar of public housing supply in the Seoul metropolitan area, accelerating their development has emerged as a key task.

On the 20th, President Lee visited Block A3 of the Incheon Gyeyang Public Housing District, the first of the Third New Towns to welcome residents. He urged officials, saying, "I ask the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) to do everything in their power to ensure that construction begins on most of the public housing units in the Third New Towns—about 90%—by 2030." At a Cabinet meeting earlier that morning, he also called for a substantial reduction in the time required for land development, permits and approvals, and construction to accelerate housing supply, saying, "What matters is not declaring how many homes we intend to build, but actually starting construction and welcoming residents."

The renewed calls to pick up the pace are understood to reflect the fact that construction starts this year have fallen short of the original target and that project delays have continued to occur. According to the regular supply briefing released by the government on the 16th, construction had begun on 7,300 units in the Third New Towns as of the second week of this month. The government's "2026 Economic Growth Strategy," announced at the start of the year, set a target of beginning construction on 18,000 units in the Third New Towns this year. So far, just over 40% of the target has been met. Although construction starts are typically concentrated toward the end of the year, another 10,700 units must begin construction in the remaining period to meet the target.

Construction starts and move-in dates are also frequently pushed back as preliminary preparations take longer. The first residents are scheduled to move into Incheon Gyeyang this December, followed by Namyangju Wangsuk 2 in February 2029 and Hanam Gyosan in June 2029. Incheon Gyeyang's move-in date has been delayed by 10 months from the schedule set at the time of the preliminary subscription, while those for Namyangju Wangsuk 2 and Hanam Gyosan have been delayed by 26 and 27 months, respectively. The first move-in dates for Namyangju Wangsuk and Goyang Changneung are also expected to be pushed back from the original plans by 14 months and two months, to May 2028 and December 2027, respectively.

There have also been successive cases in which project costs have risen or project timelines have been extended due to the removal of obstructions and land compensation. The project period for Block S-18 in Namyangju Wangsuk has been extended by 19 months, from December 2027 to July 2029. The project period for Blocks S-3 and S-4 in Goyang Changneung has likewise been extended by 15 months, from the originally scheduled December 2028 to March 2030. At Block A10 in Incheon Gyeyang, ground reinforcement issues have extended the project period by 12 months from the previously scheduled June 2028. As a result, construction costs have increased, adding KRW 13.26 million to the project cost, while the number of units has fallen by 20 from the original plan.

With projects falling behind their original schedules, the government now faces the task of accelerating actual construction through a "ultra-fast construction-start model." Land compensation is seen as the biggest obstacle to project progress, so the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to introduce a project model that cuts the time needed to secure sites—including compensation, relocation, and eviction—from 44 months to 24 months. The model will also include incentives for cooperation and penalties for noncompliance to encourage owners to relocate. LH has established a dedicated task force for compensation and, last month, began recruiting a large team of 250 compensation specialists.

Experts expect a considerable time lag before actual housing supply translates into market stability. Kwon Young-seon, head of the Real Estate Investment Advisory Center at Shinhan Bank, said, "The government is rushing to start construction in an effort to ease market concerns about a housing shortage, but it will take at least three years for the effects of actual supply to emerge. The Third New Towns have strong locational and price competitiveness, so when move-ins gather momentum from 2028 onward, that could be a positive signal for housing market stability."

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