Housing Construction on Rise

KNHC reports construction of 111,000 housing units in Jan-April period

The Korea National Housing Corp. said recently that the construction of residential houses in the country has increased 7.2 percent from a year earlier to 111,000 units in the Jan.-April period. The state-run housing company, however, said the number in the Seoul area fell 5.1 percent from the same period last year, but the number in Seoul jumped by 54 percent from a year earlier. The number in the areas except the Seoul area, expanded 14.4 percent from a year earlier.
Divided into private and public sectors, the number of newly built housing units in the public sector increased 10.4 percent, while those in the private sector jumped 6.8 percent. Based on land ownership, the public sector housing jumped 100.4 percent, while those in the private sector increased 20.8 percent, compared to the same period a year earlier.
Based on the size of housing units, of the 110,750 housing units built in the Jan-April period, 37.6 percent were built on a lot bigger than 85 square meters, 52.7 percent on a lot bigger than 61-85 square meters,
and 7.8 percent on a lot bigger than 41 to 60 square meters, and 1.9 percent smaller than 41 square meters. The construction of apartments expanded 2.2 percent across the country, while the Seoul area declined 15.4 percent. In Seoul, the number increased 13.3 percent.
Multilevel housing units build across the country increased 45.5 percent, while the Seoul area saw the number jump 102.9 percent and local regions 21.3 percent.
KNHC Policy on Housing Foundation Inspection:
KNHC, in the meantime, has decided to give the inspection of ground foundations of apartments and other buildings to outside professional firms from this year. The state-run housing corporation changed its policy of including the ground foundation inspection by the design of construction area and the firms that got the orders will in turn assign private companies to undertake the job from last year. Under the revised policy, the housing corp. will select a private firm to conduct the inspection in all 10 construction regions in the country for a year.
The change was necessary in view of the inability to check the qualifications of the inspectors in terms of equipment, experience, and technology levels as they are subcontractors assigned by main contractors, although the inspection requires a high-level of technology. The practice could have permitted the unqualified firms to undertake the work and the qualified inspectors not able to collect the service charges, because of an excessive number of unqualified inspectors.
KNHC will select the inspector for 147,802 housing units to be built in 120 locations across the country. The first step is for the examination of qualifications of the applicants and the successful applicants who score more than 80 points will be invited to make bids later and one successful bidder will be selected finally.
KHNC officials said the selection process will eliminate unqualified technology inspectors and prevent shoddy work on basic foundations of houses making KHNC to have a firm control over the quality of construction from the start of construction.
Training Iraqi officials:
KHNC has provided the training to 15 Iraqi government officials on housing policies and construction at its head office in Bundang, outside of Seoul from June 10 to 24.
The project, under support from the Korea International Cooperation Agency(KOICA), was carried out at the request of the Iraqi government, which plans to rebuild its housing conditions degraded by the UN economic sanction that continued for 12 years and the two wars.
The training program included the know-how on the development of new cities and housing sites and the policies on the supply of rental public housing, among others. nw

President Han Haeng-soo of Korea National Housing Corp.

KHNC offers training on housing policies and construction to 15 Iraqi government officials.