[Anchor]

The government unveiled measures yesterday (August 13) to accelerate housing supply, but many reactions indicate that the announced volume falls short of expectations. In particular, new supply in Seoul amounted to a meager 1,500 households, even after gathering various sites. Mentioning Yongsan Park and greenbelts in Seoul, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport stated that it will announce additional supply candidate sites as early as the end of next month.

For our first news report, Jeon Hyeong-u has the details.

[Reporter]

The new housing supply volume for Seoul announced yesterday stood at a mere 1,520 units, combining sites such as Yeomchang Park in Gangseo-gu and the former Airport High School site.

While Yongsan Children's Garden was previously discussed as a candidate site, it was not included in yesterday's announcement.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yun-deok stated today that looking only at the Yongsan Children's Garden is too narrow a perspective, and that the government is considering the entire Yongsan Park area.

He noted that while discussions are necessary with the National Assembly, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and the U.S. military—including resolving legal issues surrounding Yongsan Park—the government will make efforts for housing supply.

[Kim Yun-deok / Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport: To ensure that the supply measures are not just talk or a show, but are properly implemented, a pan-governmental total war effort will be waged.]

Kim Lee-tak, Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the official in charge of housing policy implementation, also appeared on a radio program to emphasize the necessity of utilizing the Yongsan Park site.

[Kim Lee-tak / Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MBC Radio 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus'): Yongsan Park is 1 million pyeong, and the Children's Garden is about 90,000 pyeong. At 3 million square meters, 1 million pyeong can be considered comparable in scale to Yeouido.]

Minister Kim also expressed a proactive stance on utilizing greenbelts, while the market has raised possibilities regarding greenbelt areas in the Gangnam area, such as Jagok-dong and Segok-dong in Gangnam-gu, and the Naegok-dong reserve forces training ground in Seocho-gu.

Regarding differences with the Seoul Metropolitan Government over Yongsan Park and greenbelt lifting, Minister Kim stated that he will find common ground through consultations and plans to meet with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on the 20th.

However, he made it clear that greenbelt lifting is possible even without Seoul's consent, emphasizing that the government's housing supply policy must not come to a halt simply due to negotiations with the city.

Regarding the 73,000-household metropolitan area new additional housing sites that were not disclosed in yesterday's supply measures, the government plans to announce them as early as the end of next month or no later than early October.

With consultations with local governments having progressed past 80% for some candidate sites, the government plans to announce them sequentially as discussions are completed.

(Camera Reporter: Shin Jin-soo, Video Editor: Kim Jin-won)