Cooperation with Korea Construction Association explored

Bundled orders cut construction costs by 12.9 billion won, with December ground-breaking targeted

A housing supply forum is held at the Construction Hall in Seoul on Thursday. [LH]
A housing supply forum is held at the Construction Hall in Seoul on Thursday. [LH]

Korea Land and Housing Corporation said Thursday it held a housing supply forum with the Korea Construction Association at the Construction Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, to discuss ways to strengthen public-private cooperation aimed at stabilizing the housing market through faster supply expansion.

Attendees included Korea Construction Association President Han Seung-gu, Senior Executive Vice President Kwon Hyeok-jin and Kumho Engineering & Construction CEO Jo Wan-seok. The forum followed a meeting held in August between LH and housing and construction industry associations, and was convened to support the successful implementation of the government's "Residential Stability Plan" and to explore public-private cooperation to expand housing supply.

At the forum, LH and the Korea Construction Association discussed a range of cooperation measures, including ways to accelerate public housing supply, technology collaboration to ensure quality and differentiation in universal public rental housing, and measures to boost housing supply through private-participation projects and mixed-use site development.

"This is a moment when closer and stronger cooperation with the construction industry is needed so that the public can feel the effects of housing policy more quickly and reliably," LH President Lee Seong-hun said. "We will combine the on-site experience and technical capabilities of the Korea Construction Association and the construction industry with LH's project execution capacity to accelerate housing supply."

Korea Construction Association President Han echoed the sentiment. "Public and private sectors need to work more closely together than ever to significantly raise the speed and efficiency of housing supply," he said. "The construction industry will actively cooperate to contribute to improving the residential environment and housing stability for the public through rigorous quality management and safe construction."

On Wednesday, LH held a plenary meeting at its Gyeonggi South Regional Headquarters to review the progress of districts scheduled for ground-breaking this year and discuss measures to address key issues. Participants shared updates on each district's progress and discussed how to respond to outstanding challenges.

LH is working toward a goal of breaking ground on 50,000 units of construction-type public housing by year-end. The corporation said it plans to proactively identify and resolve factors causing ground-breaking delays in each district, and to continuously monitor progress to ensure the target is met.

As part of its push to accelerate housing supply, LH is applying bundled procurement to 13 blocks totaling 4,744 units of public housing construction this year, consolidating them into six orders, with ground-breaking planned before the end of the year.

Bundled procurement groups construction work in nearby districts with similar ground-breaking timelines into a single order. The approach allows LH to reduce duplicated procurement procedures and administrative work, improving operational efficiency, while private construction companies can make better use of shared materials, equipment and specialized workers across nearby sites to improve project viability.

The bundled approach is also expected to generate cost savings through economies of scale. Consolidating the 13 blocks into bundled orders is projected to cut construction costs by about 12.9 billion won ($9.73 million). Construction management service costs are also expected to fall, with total savings from LH's bundled procurement this year estimated at around 261.2 billion won.

The approach is also expected to attract large construction companies with strong construction, quality and safety management capabilities to smaller-scale projects in regional areas.

LH has completed requests to the Public Procurement Service for six bundled orders covering 13 blocks totaling 4,744 units, including Bucheon Daejang A11 and Incheon Gyeyang A22. The corporation plans to proceed with follow-up steps with a target of breaking ground in December.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday LH President Lee briefed President Lee Jae Myung at the Incheon Gyeyang district site of the third-generation new towns on a plan to raise the average floor-area ratio of third-generation new towns to 250 percent or higher.


hss@heraldcorp.com