Gyeonggi Province Basic Housing Heads toward Leak-Free, Condensation-Free, and Quiet Neighborhoods

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] As Gyeonggi Province pursues the supply of quality basic housing that anyone without property can stably reside in for a lifetime, the province has established concrete standards to ensure such quality.

To prevent the three major defects of existing public rental housing—leaks, condensation, and inter-unit noise—Gyeonggi Province basic housing will be managed thoroughly through reinforced waterproofing, insulation materials, and floor slab sound barriers.

Urban Policy Director Son Im-sung of Gyeonggi Province held a press conference at the Provincial Government on the 23rd, announcing the promotion of enacting the 'Integrated Design Standards for Gyeonggi Province Basic Housing' containing these provisions.

"Residents have endured considerable inconvenience due to various defects such as leaks and cracks occurring in public rental housing and deterioration in housing quality caused by unreasonable designs," he said. "In response, Gyeonggi Province basic housing will systematically analyze problems and devise solutions to provide residents with 'quality' basic housing they want to live in," explaining the background for the initiative.

To this end, the province set the direction for enacting the 'Integrated Design Standards for Gyeonggi Province Basic Housing' as ▲zero-defect goals ▲quality at market-rate housing level ▲lifetime residency considerations.

First, Gyeonggi Province basic housing will be thoroughly managed and supervised from the design through construction stages to address the three major defects in multi-unit housing: leaks, condensation, and noise control.

The province plans to establish standards targeting zero defects by analyzing sections vulnerable to leaks and preventing them through reinforced waterproofing, preventing condensation from insulation material gaps or defects, and implementing noise reduction measures such as reinforcing floor slabs with sound buffers of 30mm or more.

Meanwhile, to eliminate quality differences between rental and market-rate housing, the province will pursue facility improvements at market-rate housing levels including upgraded interior finishing materials, mechanical ventilation systems, digital door locks, LED lighting, and eco-friendly solid wood flooring installation.

Moving away from the plain design of existing multi-unit housing, the province plans to adopt competition-based design methods to reflect innovative design and establish substantive design standards such as adopting expanded balcony floor plans and providing at least one parking space per unit, differentiating from existing public rental housing.

The province aims to realize public housing where basic housing residents can safely and comfortably live for 30 years by conducting deterioration inspections every three years starting from the 10-year mark, actively introducing structures and equipment methods conducive to remodeling, and enabling smooth maintenance and management.

Additionally, to reduce management fees, the province will include various energy-saving measures in the standards such as standby power cutoff outlets and smart heating distribution systems.

Lastly, considering resident safety, the province will adopt systems that facilitate evacuation during fires and reflect non-contact access methods using smart keys in the standards to prevent infectious disease spread like COVID-19, continuously discovering improvement measures to enhance residents' quality of life and reflecting them in Gyeonggi Province basic housing.

The 'Integrated Design Standards for Gyeonggi Province Basic Housing' will undergo expert review and sufficient opinion-gathering through research projects and is scheduled to be announced in the second half of this year.

Urban Policy Director Son Im-sung emphasized, "Moving away from the image of public rental housing as merely affordable housing, Gyeonggi Province will make basic housing a model of public rental housing that everyone wants to reside in by guaranteeing true universal housing rights."

Meanwhile, on the 25th at 10 a.m., Gyeonggi Province will hold a 'Gyeonggi Province Basic Housing' conference at Suwon Convention Center with Governor Lee Jae-myung, National Assembly members, Provincial Assembly members, ambassadors to Korea, Gyeonggi Housing & Urban Development Corporation, and private experts in attendance.

The 'Basic Housing Conference' prepared to discuss the vision of the 'Gyeonggi Province Basic Housing' policy will also feature a promotional booth where visitors can directly view and experience basic housing.

Gyeonggi Province basic housing, Governor Lee's core housing policy, is a new form of public housing to guarantee universal housing rights, consisting of the 'basic housing long-term rental type' allowing 30-year residency and the 'basic housing sales type' where the public owns and leases the land while individuals purchase and own the housing.