Analysis of the effects of the agreement rate on housing-renewal projects in South Korea

Application of the agreement rate is widespread in housing-renewal schemes in South Korea. If a certain proportion of owners in a district consent, they can form a renewal association and acquire the property rights of those owners who do not consent. This major policy tool has been used to control the speed at which projects accelerate through the stages of housing renewal. This study analyzes the effects of area and economic variables on project duration to examine how the agreement rate influenced the implementation of housing-renewal projects in Seoul from 2000-2013. The findings show that a low agreement rate may not translate into project acceleration, and a high agreement rate may not translate into project delay. The expectation from the policies is that the lower the agreement rate, the more projects will be promoted, but these findings indicate that that is not the actual effect. From a policy consistency standpoint, changing the agreement rate frequently is unreasonable. Thus, the policy of using the agreement rate as a means of improving project implementation should be reconsidered.