Low-income housing policies in the Republic of Korea

Abstract

This paper examines low-income housing problems and housing policies in the Republic of Korea. It focuses on the role of the public sector and the attempts that are currently being made to supply public housing for the low-income group. During the past 20 years the government has concentrated on a policy of state-developed housing for sale rather than on expanding rental dwellings. Paradoxically, it was found that state-developed housing tended to aid the middle- or upper-income groups. In the late 1980s, the government recognized that the paramount objective for the public sector is greater equity or social welfare. A permanent rental dwelling programme was launched in 1989, and represented the beginning of a social housing tradition directed at low-income households. Social housing has in the past not taken into account local housing needs and the number of units is far too few for the number of the poor.