LH Back On Track

Focusing on building houses for lease around the country as it marks two years since its founding

Korea Land and Housing Corp. celebrated the second anniversary of the merger of Korea Housing Corp. and Korea Land Corp. on Oct. 1.
LH unveiled its first half performance record, showing that debt increased by 4.3 trillion won to 95 trillion won, although net profit rose to 386.3 billion won in the period, much more than 373.3 billion won in H2 2010.
President Lee Ji-song, on the occasion of the two year anniversary, said that LH will focus on construction of lease houses to relieve the housing shortage for the general public around the country, and thus rekindle the housing construction sector now that the company's restructuring has begun to work.
During the first half, the company worked on restructuring its 137 project districts and nearly completed 126 project districts with 11 districts still in the stage of talking with the residents in those areas. LH was able to save 70 trillion won from the restructuring, with 40 trillion won to be transferred later, a total savings of 110 trillion won, the company said.
The company expects to generate profits from 2014 and to decrease its debt load from 2016.
LH announced the debt reduction target of 125 trillion won at the end of last year and has been working on the LH Normalization Plan led by President Lee Ji-song this year. Under the plan, all employees voluntarily cut their salaries by 10 percent and 786 of them took early retirement, while phasing out all but the housing construction projects in order to cut costs.
Lee said the financial reforms of the past couple of years to help the company go all out in the building lease housing to resolve the housing problem have been successful and will thus perk up the economy.

Purpose of Merger
Under the government's scheme of advancing public corporations, LH launched itself by merging KLC and KNHC in an effort to eliminate the duplication of functions, boost the efficiency of management, and contribute to national economic development.

Major Duties
* To construct and supply decent and affordable housing units for the vulnerable members of society and to improve their residential environment, as well as to implement tailored residential welfare programs.
* To develop housing land, new towns, a multi-functional administrative city and innovation cities, as well as to execute projects aimed at regenerating cities in a bid to create comfortable residential spaces and in an urban environment.
* To develop industrial and logistics complexes, Kaesong Industrial complex, FEZs, and overseas land to boost national competitiveness and to create employment.
* To perform land reserve and management, rental housing management, and land and housing informatization.

Capital
LH has received an investment of 10.6 trillion won from the government and the Korea Development Bank to stabilize the people's residential welfare and to help national economic development. LH has a legal capital of 30 trillion won and a paid-in capital of 15.2 trillion won, allowing it to perform public projects in the interest of the people.

Organization and Workforce
LH's organization consists of HQs (six divisions, one research institute, three units, and 53 departments), 12 regional HQs, and 12 project divisions. Its 5,600 staff members specializing in land and housing are striving to systematically implement national land and housing policies.

* Construction of Korea's first apartment complex (Mapo)
* Construction of Korea's first rental apartments (Gaebong-dong)
* Construction of the first-phase new towns in the Greater Seoul area (Bundang, Ilsan, Pyeongchon, and Jungdong)
* Construction of the first permanent rental houses (Beondong)
* Construction of the second-phase new towns in the Greater Seoul area (Pangyo, Dongtan, Kimpo, etc.)
* Development of Kaesong Industrial complex (the first stage has been completed, and the basis for the second phase established)
* Development of Sejong City and Innovation City (nine of 10 innovative cities, being developed with an area of 44.2 km2)
* Completion of the construction of 2.18 million houses (the first such achievement by a single company)
* Development of industrial complexes and FEZs
* Execution of overseas land development projects
* Establishment of the Land Bank (strengthening the centralized land supply and demand control function to stabilize the real estate markets) nw

President Lee Ji-song of Korea Land and Housing Corp.

Photo on courtesy of LH