Rep. Bok Gi-wang of the Democratic Party of Korea [provided by the lawmaker's office]
Rep. Bok Gi-wang of the Democratic Party of Korea [provided by the lawmaker's office]

Rep. Bok Gi-wang of the Democratic Party of Korea, floor coordinator of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee and representative for Asan in South Chungcheong Province, announced Tuesday that he will formally push to enact a framework law on government building management to address the rapid deterioration of aging public offices and ease the resulting burden on state finances.

To that end, Bok plans to co-host an expert seminar on improving government building management efficiency Thursday morning at Conference Room 4 of the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Seoul, organized with the Ministry of Interior and Safety's Government Buildings Management Headquarters and the Architecture and Urban Research Institute (AURI), to gather final public input ahead of the legislation.

The seminar is designed to bring together government officials, lawmakers, academics and private-sector specialists to sharpen the bill's legislative quality and create a forum for open debate.

According to Bok, central government buildings have until now been managed only under a presidential decree, with a focus on short-term, reactive repairs. That approach has entrenched administrative inefficiencies from fragmented, ministry-by-ministry and region-by-region management, and calls have mounted for a legal framework enabling systematic oversight of all public buildings.

Research by AURI shows that as of last year, 1,218 government buildings had been standing for 30 years or more, a figure projected to surge to 5,388 — roughly 4.4 times as many — by 2050. Maintenance spending on government buildings already overtook new-construction spending in 2021, when upkeep costs reached 1 trillion won ($678 million) against 987.2 billion won for new builds. In 2025, maintenance spending of 888.6 billion won again exceeded the 875.9 billion won allocated for construction, underscoring a structural shift toward upkeep-heavy expenditure.

Counting both central and local government buildings, the total number of aging facilities is expected to grow 2.7 times — from 3,861 buildings in 2025 to 10,444 by 2050, comprising 5,388 central government buildings and 5,056 local government buildings.

Despite this trend, on-site maintenance still relies on patchwork repairs made only after damage occurs. The accumulated "latent repair costs" from deferred maintenance can balloon by as much as 550 percent as buildings age, posing a significant risk to public finances.

Research findings indicate that shifting from a reactive repair model — estimated to require about 14 trillion won — to a preventive maintenance system based on medium- and long-term planning could save the government up to 3.4 trillion won through 2050. Introducing proactive preventive maintenance alone could trim annual operating budgets by at least 82.8 billion won and as much as 207.1 billion won each year.

The framework bill Bok plans to introduce as lead sponsor would address these problems by mandating a comprehensive five-year government building management plan, introducing a six-category integrated performance rating system covering safety, disaster preparedness, energy, space use and related areas, linking assessment results to annual budget planning, and establishing a legal basis for a dedicated "Government Building Management Support Center" to provide on-site planning and consulting services.

"Government and local authority buildings across the country are aging all at once, and if we delay taking preemptive action, the fiscal burden our future generations will have to shoulder in the not-too-distant future will be beyond imagination," Bok said. "Enacting this framework law is extremely urgent, if only to prevent the financial strain caused by the deterioration of public buildings."

Thursday's seminar will be chaired by Kim Do-nyeon, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University, with panelists drawn from local government, academia and policy research institutions — including Hwaseong First Deputy Mayor Yun Seong-jin, Kyungpook National University professor Nam Chang-woo, former Ministry of Interior and Safety section chief Im Wang-ju, and Lee Hye-won, director of the National Public Architecture Support Center. Discussions will focus on reflecting the on-the-ground needs of local governments and ensuring the bill's legal coherence.


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