Changing Korean Housing System and Its Structural Forces

Abstract

This research aims to examine the historical evolution of the developmental housing system in South Korea, to elicit the characteristics of the system and to explore the structural forces realigning the system. The primary findings are as follows: 1) the Korean housing system strongly supports economic growth and has been formed by a state-controlled, market-driven, pro-homeownership policy, forcing housing to be highly commodified; 2) the state′s export-oriented, industrialization-led economic development prompted urbanization that resulted in a housing shortage, and the persistent demand for housing coupled with limited access to home financing caused housing prices to sharply increase; 3) democratization facilitated state-guided production of massive housing and provision of public rental housing which is residualised; 4) economic crises in the wake of economic globalization revealed institutional drawbacks of the developmental housing system and 5) the housing system has been ostensibly responding to political realignment, economic restructuring and socio-demographic transformation, leading to more variations in housing provision, particularly tenure mode, structure type, size and housing careers.