A bill has been submitted to the National Assembly to let homeless end-users who buy homes in redevelopment and reconstruction projects in speculation overheated zones also become association members. It aims to treat purchases made for actual residence, or unavoidable relocation circumstances, as exceptions to the restriction on association membership eligibility.
Rep. Hwang Hee of the Democratic Party of Korea said on the 27th that he had sponsored a partial amendment to the Act on the Maintenance and Improvement of Urban Areas and Dwelling Conditions for Residents. Hwang serves on the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee.
“Under the banner of curbing speculation, the current system has caused problems in which sellers cannot sell their homes even when they want to, and end-user buyers cannot buy because of the risk of cash settlement,” Hwang said. “Through this amendment, we will normalize housing transactions in redevelopment projects so as to prevent cash-settlement damage and help end-users relocate.”
At present, in speculation overheated zones, a person who takes over a home or land after association establishment approval in a reconstruction, or after management and disposition plan approval in a redevelopment, cannot obtain association membership. This is a safeguard to block the entry of speculators. Association status can be transferred only if the party handing over the home has a specified reason, such as work or livelihood circumstances, medical treatment or overseas relocation of all household members.
Hwang pointed out that because of these constraints, even when a seller tries to dispose of a home for personal reasons, succession of status is blocked and the transaction is stuck, and even a buyer who wants to live there may fail to become a member and be pushed out as a cash-settlement target.
The core of the amendment is to add a new Paragraph 4 to Article 39 of the Act, allowing exceptions after considering whether the buyer is an end-user and whether there are circumstances requiring relocation. First, it grants association membership eligibility to a homeless household that buys a home with the actual intent to live in it and plans to live for a certain period or longer in the housing newly built through the project.
Cases in which all household members buy a home in order to move to and live in the project area are also included in the exceptions. This applies when there are unavoidable reasons set by presidential decree, which include work or livelihood circumstances, marriage, childbirth and child-rearing, support of lineal ascendants or descendants, and medical treatment and recuperation.