South Korea Plans 1.19 Million Public Homes by 2030, With 77% in the Seoul Area

South Korea's land ministry plans 1.19 million public homes by 2030, about 240,000 a year, and wants long-term public rentals above 10% of all housing.

South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport unveiled a Housing Stability Plan on 21 September 2026 that targets 1.19 million public homes by 2030 and aims to lift long-term public rental housing above 10% of the country's total housing stock. That is an average of about 240,000 homes a year, according to Yonhap and SBS reports on the briefing, and about 920,000 of the units, or 77%, are earmarked for the Seoul metropolitan area.

How the 1.19 million homes break down

Rental housing makes up most of the plan. SBS reported 350,000 homes to be built on public land, 313,000 purchase-type units, where the state buys privately built homes and lets them, 230,000 jeonse-type units that use existing private housing, and 52,000 publicly supported private rentals. Another 243,000 homes are for public sale, 211,000 of them in the metropolitan area, mainly in the third-generation new towns and other areas. Those five components add up to 1,188,000, consistent with the headline figure. About 190,000 of the units belong to a new category of universal public housing, with an exclusive area of up to 84 square metres, aimed at family households that cannot yet buy.

Who the homes are for

The ministry sets allocations by household type: 243,000 homes for unmarried young people, 328,000 for newlyweds and families raising children, and 54,000 for elderly households. It also plans to cut the time from application to tenant selection from 150 days to 40 days through a single integrated system. About 150,000 units are expected to be ready for move-in nationwide between the fourth quarter of 2026 and the end of 2027, around 100,000 of them in the metropolitan area.

The scale against the existing stock

Long-term public rentals, meaning homes a tenant can occupy for 10 years or more, are to rise from 1.931 million units in 2024 to more than 2.5 million in 2030. Yonhap put the full 1.19 million target at about 13.6% of the country's 8.71 million rental homes as of 2024. The jeonse component matters in a market where much letting still runs on large refundable deposits rather than monthly rent. The ministry's release gives the headline targets; the detailed breakdown above comes from press reports of the briefing, and neither source states a budget for the plan.

Where Seoul prices stand

Our market data puts the average sale price of a Seoul apartment at USD 1,197,052, based on KB Kookmin Bank's August 2026 housing price survey. We do not publish a rental yield for Korea: because most letting is jeonse, the bare monthly payment understates a landlord's real return, and the conversion rate needed to correct it could not be verified. Whether 240,000 public homes a year eases pressure in Seoul will depend largely on the purchase-type units, which the plan presents as the fastest way to add homes in city centres.

Sources: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), Housing Stability Plan press release, 21 September 2026 https://www.korea.kr/briefing/pressReleaseView.do?newsId=156782726; SBS News, 1.19 Million Public Housing Units to Be Supplied by 2030, 21 September 2026 https://news.sbs.co.kr/english/article.do?news_id=N1008764226; Korea Times (Yonhap), Govt plans 1.19 mil. public sale, rental homes, 21 September 2026 https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/economy/policy/20260921/govt-plans-119-mil-public-sale-rental-homes-amid-housing-price-pressures

Market data: Seoul · South Korea