Up until the early 1990s, there had been a division of labor in real estate development market. Mostly land development was for public sector, while housing construction was for private sector. This division of labor was not effective to stabilize rea...
Up until the early 1990s, there had been a division of labor in real estate development market. Mostly land development was for public sector, while housing construction was for private sector. This division of labor was not effective to stabilize real estate market. The abnormal increase of housing prices was mostly due to the mis-match of demand and supply of housings. To increase the supply of housing, it was necessary to increase the supply of the serviced land for housing. Tight regulation on private sector's land development was moved out.
In 1993 the National Land Use and Management Law was revised. The Semi Agriculture/Forestry Region was introduced, where private sector rather easily conducted land development projects for housing construction. During 1994-1999, the total 360,000 units of housing were supplied through private sector's land development, which was about 11.5% of all the new houses supplied during that period.
This deregulation, however, produced several policy problems. Private sector's land development was criticized for its disorderly development. Among others. private sector did not supply enough on-site infrastructure, and natural environment was not conserved enough for upgrading the quality of life. The government finally announced the Comprehensive Measures against Disorderly Development on May 30, 2000. Two years later, the National Land Planning and Use Law was enacted, which was the result of unifying the Urban Planning Law of 1962 and the National Land Use and Management Law of 1972.
The new law aims to address the disorderly development but to achieve the sustainable development. Several important policy measures were introduced. First, land use zoning system was changed. The Semi Agriculture/Forestry Region and the Semi Urban Region were moved out and integrated into the Managerial Region. Land suitability assessment system was introduced. It decides whether the land can be developed or should be conserved. The Second District Planning system and development impact fees system were also introduced, by which private developer should install infrastructure or pay for the costs for infrastructure. Finally, development permit system was widely introduced. Before 2002, development permit system was only applied to land within Urban Region.
Since 2002, private sector's land development and also housing construction had reduced significantly. Ironically, the government anticipates the increases in the role of private sector's land development from 43% to 55% in its 10 Year's Housing Comprehensive Planning(2003-2012). To achieve the policy goals, it seems to be inevitable to invite private sector to land development market. Under the current laws and system, however, it seems to be impossible for private sector to involve in land development in large scale.
This thesis aims to find out solutions to overcome the present structural limitations and thus enlarging private sector's participation in land development.
It consists of seven chapters. Following the Introduction, Chapter 2 summarizes the situation of land development and supply of both public and private sectors. Then it indicates the reasons why private sector's participation in land development is inevitably necessary.
Chapter 3 studies foreign countries' land development and supply system. It includes France, Germany, Sweden, England, USA, Canada and Japan. The level of regulations and/or incentives for private sector's land development depend on each country's uniqueness. Nevertheless, we may say that the well designed division of labor between public and private sector is very important, and the roles of public and private sector are not mutually exclusive but should go all together.
Chapter 4 shows the result of the case study. It take the Seongbok District as a case study. Seongbok District is in the West-Northern region of Yongin city, Gyeonggi province. The district is famous that private sector developed whole area for the first time. Before then, the project size developed by private sector were mostly about 50,000~100,000 square meters. So, Seongbok District is the first case that has been carried out by private sector in large scale, which can have a profound implication in our current study.
The most difficult task in private sector's land development project is project financing. Chapter 5 shows the contents and procedures of fund raising and management in the case of Seongbok District development.
Chapter 6 is the main body of the thesis. It analyses the structural limitations for private sector to carry out land development. Then it suggests alternative to enlarge private sector's participation for land development. Chapter 7 is conclusion of the thesis, summarizing findings and implications.
In the global era, private sector's contribution is inevitable. To let market work, private sector's ingenuity, skills and experiences, the efficiency should be utilized. It is because, the central and also local government are usually not flexible in making urban planning and land use planning suitable to the changes of market conditions. In addition, private sector has difficulties in conducting land development project because of heavy regulations. Particularly, private sector is too hard to access the project financing, partly because of the immaturity of financing system.
The alternatives suggested can be summarizes as follows: First, small and medium sized private sectors are having difficulties in providing the expenses of land acquisition and project management. This, in the respect of the publicity of land development project and improving infrastructure, it is needed to lighten the initial burdens of private sector by creating public support system or land development project fund, etc.
Second, varied methods of land development should be developed in order to fit for the conditions of project sites. The development permit system should be made simpler to reflect the situations of project sites, too. Even if the varied method of development and simpler procedures are articulated, they are not easily realized because of the social conflicts surrounding the distribution of development gains. So, it is suggested to make the residents participate in land development process, and also some portion of development gains should be returned to the community.
Third, the current legal systems are devised in favor of public sector. It is very hard for private sector to access to land development and financing market. Under these unfavorable conditions, private sector's development project has been forced to be a few limited types, and thus causing disorderly development again. Development permit process should be de-regulated, the First and Second District Planning system should be managed more flexibly to promote private sector's participation in land development project.
Lastly, financing and tax support program should be articulated in order to make private sector access easily to financial and development market. It includes articulating the project financing system, establishing the real estate investment trusts(REITs) system, reducing financial burdens including acquisition and property taxes and development charges.
In contemporary, most countries are trying to solve their social problems by deregulation and indirect support system. So does private sector's land development process. Judging from the prospect that the role of private sector in land development will increase gradually, further research should be followed, such as articulating land development and supply system based on citizen's partnership as well as community proposal, developing project financing system based on business feasibility analysis, and creating land development prototype based on multi-lateral cooperation with private and public sector and also community members.