Seoul makes all road land a land-transaction permit zone to curb share-splitting

Seoul's city government said on October 8 that its 16th urban planning committee, held the previous day, had newly designated all land registered in the land category "road" across the city as a land transaction permit zone. The designation runs for one year from October 17; Kyunghyang Shinmun, Korea Economic Daily and Hankook Ilbo gave the end date as October 16, 2027. The specific land covered and the period are to be set out in a notice in the Seoul city gazette on October 12. Korea Economic Daily noted that the rule applies only to road-category land, not to all property in Seoul. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]

The city said the step is meant to block in advance speculative deals such as splitting road plots into small shares. Since September 2024 it has designated private roads in development sites such as Moa Town (모아타운) as permit zones, but similar share-splitting deals have recently appeared even in areas with little connection to development projects, prompting the expansion to the whole city. Korea Economic Daily reported that the earlier rule followed a run of deals in which speculative real-estate firms bought private roads inside development zones, split them into shares and sold them in bulk. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]

In a permit zone, a contract to transfer or establish ownership or surface rights over land above the threshold area requires permission from the district head. The thresholds are 6 square metres in residential areas, 15 square metres in commercial and industrial areas and 20 square metres in green areas, according to Kyunghyang Shinmun, Korea Economic Daily and Hankook Ilbo; Hankook Ilbo added that the land must be used for the purpose for which the permit was granted. The city stressed that road sales are not banned: deals with a recognised need for use that meet the permit criteria under the relevant laws can be approved. It said checking the purpose of acquisition and the use plan before a deal would curb the spread of speculative share trading based on development expectations and prevent harm to citizens. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]

"This designation is not meant to restrict normal trading of roads but to screen out in advance speculative deals such as splitting road shares into small pieces and trading them repeatedly," said Myung No-jun (명노준), head of Seoul's housing office. He said the city would run the system so that it prevents harm to citizens from speculative share trading without inconveniencing normal deals based on real demand, and would watch the market closely after the designation. The city said it will monitor the effect and the impact on real-demand deals for a year and may review how the system is run in light of market conditions. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]

At the same meeting the city adjusted the permit-zone boundaries of three fast-track integrated planning (신속통합기획) housing redevelopment areas: around Bukgajwa-dong 3-191 in Seodaemun-gu, Bulgwang-dong 445 in Eunpyeong-gu and Yongdap-dong 15 in Seongdong-gu. Asia Economy reported that the areas changed from 77,001.2 to 80,940 square metres, from 89,536.8 to 96,624.5 square metres and from 95,889.5 to 96,210.8 square metres respectively, and that the designation periods are unchanged. [ 1 , 2 , 4 ]