Lee Sung-hoon, president of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), announced plans to overhaul the corporation's operational framework to accelerate housing supply by significantly expanding the workforce dedicated to compensation procedures and running business processes in parallel.

The site of the LH Seoul Regional Headquarters building located in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, will be utilized as a housing supply site for young adults and others.

During his first press conference since taking office, held in Jongno-gu, Seoul, today (August 6), President Lee stated, "We will concentrate all our capabilities to advance housing supply in public housing sites and downtown areas by even a single day."

Lee stated that to reduce project durations, the system will be improved so that tasks previously conducted sequentially will instead be pursued simultaneously.

"In the past, step B would only begin after step A was completed, but now we plan to run steps A, B, and C in parallel to tackle whatever can be done first," Lee said. "To this end, we are proposing necessary institutional improvements to the government."

Lee particularly emphasized focusing capabilities on shortening compensation procedures, which take the longest time prior to the commencement of construction.

The plan is to reduce the overall project timeline by bringing forward concurrently feasible procedures as much as possible, such as initiating appraising before the completion of preceding project stages.

To achieve this, LH plans to substantially recruit temporary staff to handle compensation tasks and prioritize the deployment of experienced personnel.

He mentioned that to secure skilled personnel and boost the performance of temporary workers, the corporation would even consider setting their compensation higher than that of regular employees.

Lee stressed that in order to expand housing supply, the debt-management-centric management evaluation system also needs improvement.

"Because management evaluations have induced passive investment and strict debt management, it has been difficult to push for an expanded supply," Lee said. "We have a critical awareness of why efforts to accelerate the supply speed desired by the public are not receiving favorable evaluations, and we are discussing ways to improve management evaluations with government ministries."

Lee also stated that public rental housing will focus on subway station areas to supply mid-sized, high-quality homes so that various brackets including the middle class, young adults, and newlywed couples can have options.

LH decided to utilize the site of its Seoul Regional Headquarters building located in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, for housing supply.

This building began serving as the headquarters of the Korea National Housing Corporation in 1973, and after the headquarters relocated to Bundang in 1997, it has been used as the Seoul Regional Headquarters.

It has a land area of 6,588 square meters and a total floor area of 8,601.1 square meters, and is located in a station area near Gangnam-gu Office Station and Seonjeongneung Station.

"We have decided to provide the LH Seoul Regional Headquarters, which holds a 52-year history, as a residential space for the public and young people," Lee said. "The specific number of housing units to be supplied needs to be discussed with government ministries."

Regarding LH reforms, he emphasized that he will ensure that the decline in employee morale does not cause setbacks in housing supply.

"The morale of LH employees has dropped significantly following the speculation scandal (involving LH employees in 2021)," Lee said. "Regardless of what innovation measures are announced, we will strive to ensure that the drop in employee morale does not slow down the speed of supply."

(Photo: Yonhap News)