Maximum of 120,000 Households to be Distributed in 2006

New cities will be established in Gimpo City over a total area of 5 million pyeong and in Paju City over an area of 3 million pyeong in Gyeonggi Province in order to stabilize the price of housing in the metropolitan area. The new cities in Gimpo and Paju are the largest since Bundang City and Ilsan City were established each with 2 million households towards the end of the 1980s.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation announced on May 8 that the new cities will be designated permit-required areas for land transactions. This is a measure to prevent real estate speculation. Discussions will take place on May 9 at the central city planning committee meeting to discuss details.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation was to announce the plan for the two cities on May 9. However, the announcement was made one day earlier due to a feature printed in the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper entitled, ‘Probable candidates of the new cities: Gimpo City and Pajoo City’. The new city in Gimpo will be developed as a residential area as the Gimpo special economic zone or Songdo, in which the Northeast Asia Business Center will be established have already been planned. In the area, apartments and houses making up 70,000 to 80,000 households will be established. This will be smaller than Bundang (5.9 million pyeong) and a little larger than Ilsan (4.7 million pyeong) in size.

The new city in Paju City will be developed into the large city encompassing Paju region because the new city will be located near the currently developing residential area in Unjeong and Gyoha land development and publication zones. The area is twice as large as Pyeongchon in size. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 households will be built.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation will give confirmation at the end of 2005 their development plan and progress for the two new satellite cities based on evaluation of environmental effects and traffic policies. The distribution of apartments will be set up in 2006 and settlement will be possible in 2008 to 2009.

“When the Housing Market Stability Policy on September 4 was originally announced, the two cities had been planned at the size of 10 million pyeong each,” explained a staff member at the Ministry of Construction and Transportation. “Having considered that demand for residences in the metropolitan area would possibly decrease due to the plan for establishing a new capital, the size of the two new cities has been reduced.”

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com