Hwaseong Special City to Launch Housing Lodging Facility Support Center Starting January 13

[Suwon Ilbo=Park Chan-hyuk Reporter] Hwaseong Special City will establish a Housing Lodging Facility Support Center and begin operations starting January 13.

The Hwaseong City Housing Lodging Facility Support Center will be established within the City Hall's Architecture Policy Division and will operate through December 2027.

Following the Korean Wave boom, the government introduced housing lodging facilities (hereinafter 'HLF') in 2012 as demand for long-term accommodation by foreign tourists and others increased. However, contrary to its original purpose, it was misused as a loophole residential product, and while the government announced a 'Measures to Prevent Illegal Conversion of HLF' in 2021, some HLF facilities remain non-compliant.

The Housing Lodging Facility Support Plan for Legal Use announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in October last year is a customized support measure that blocks new illegal conversions while allowing legal use of operating or under-construction HLF based on regional and owner circumstances.

The city plans to send guidance notices to HLF owners, encouraging them to apply for lodging business registration or use change by September, and will provide customized consultation for use conversion through the support center.

Seo Boong-gi, Head of the Architecture Policy Division, said "We will actively support HLF owners who have not yet registered their lodging businesses to legally use their housing lodging facilities by utilizing the lodging business registration or officetel use change consultation provided by the support center."