Even if Multi-Unit Housing Floors Increase, Parking Remains an Obstacle

The government is promoting a plan to increase residential floors for multi-unit housing from three to four, allowing a total of four floors, to expand supply. This is expected to allow for an additional 33% of households on the same plot of land. Additionally, setback regulations, which require buildings to be set back to ensure sunlight access for neighboring properties based on building height, will be eased, making it easier to secure upper floor areas for buildings.

Existing setback regulations required buildings taller than 10m to be set back by half their height. However, under the relaxed regulations, buildings between 10m and 17m only need to be set back about 5m from the boundary line. This allows for wider utilization of the yellow portion of the building, i.e., the upper space, during construction. This is expected to increase the actual buildable area for multi-unit housing.

When constructing multi-unit housing in a Class 2 general residential area, a floor area ratio of 200% and a building-to-land ratio of 60% apply. There is a regulation that excludes attics from the calculation of residential floors if their residential floor area is 1/8 or less of the total residential area. Through these regulations, builders strive to secure the maximum possible residential space within the given land area.

When constructing multi-unit housing, parking spaces must be secured based on the exclusive area per household. For households with an exclusive area of 60㎡ or less, 0.8 parking spaces per household must be secured, and when calculating the number of parking spaces, decimals are rounded up. For example, if 4.2 spaces are needed, 5 must be secured. In practice, 7-9 pyeong (approx. 23-30 sq. meters) per car is required to secure parking spaces, considering vehicle turning angles.

Multi-unit housing is often built with a piloti structure, where the first floor is used for parking. However, as parking regulations have become stricter, it has become difficult to secure all necessary parking spaces with just the piloti area. As a result, builders choose to reduce the exclusive area of each household to meet parking requirements. For example, reducing the residential area on the fourth floor by two or three pyeong (approx. 6.6-9.9 sq. meters) can reduce the required number of parking spaces by one.

According to current law, ground floor piloti spaces cannot be used as residential units. Therefore, builders sometimes opt to utilize piloti spaces by incorporating small commercial stores and using the remaining space for parking. When piloti is included in the floor count, it is primarily used for commercial stores or commercial parking, reflecting efforts to maximize the efficient use of the building's ground floor space within parking regulations.

Currently, when building multi-unit housing on a 50-pyeong (approx. 165 sq. meters) plot, it is common to have piloti and commercial units on the first floor, standard 15-pyeong (approx. 50 sq. meters) units on the second and third floors, an 18-pyeong (approx. 60 sq. meters) unit on the fourth floor, and illegally expanded rooftop units. However, if the law is amended, residential space can be legally used up to the fourth and fifth floors. This is expected to allow for the use of a total of four floors for residential purposes and secure 100% of the floor area ratio.

As the number of floors increases, securing parking spaces becomes a bigger problem. While households with an exclusive area of 60㎡ or less only need 0.8 spaces per household, if the 4th and 5th floors are each configured as 20 pyeong (over 60㎡), one parking space per household is required. In this case, a total of 5.2 parking spaces are needed, which rounds up to 6 spaces. However, securing 6 parking spaces on a small 50-pyeong (approx. 165 sq. meters) plot is practically impossible.

In reality, to meet the required number of parking spaces, there is a forced choice to reduce the area per household. For example, reducing the area of each household by two pyeong (approx. 6.6 sq. meters) means giving up four pyeong (approx. 13.2 sq. meters) of floor area ratio in total, but it allows for reducing the number of parking spaces by one. This leads to a situation where the allowed floor area ratio cannot be fully utilized due to insufficient parking spaces. As a result, builders are forced to sacrifice commercial space on the first floor or reduce the area of upper floors to secure parking spaces, and build 18-pyeong (approx. 60 sq. meters) units per household. The proportion of first-floor commercial space is sometimes adjusted depending on the builder's choice.

Recently, stricter jeonse (lump-sum deposit) loan regulations have led to a decrease in new multi-unit housing construction. If the jeonse deposit exceeds 126% of the officially assessed price, jeonse loans become impossible, making it difficult for tenants to obtain them. This leads to a decrease in jeonse demand, making it harder for landlords to repay construction loans with jeonse deposits, thereby increasing the burden on landlords. Especially in areas without redevelopment potential, there is a phenomenon of avoiding new multi-unit construction altogether.

Rooftop rooms were originally water tank rooms installed on the roofs of buildings. In the past, water tanks were essential due to water pressure issues, but with technological advancements and stronger water pressure, water tank rooms became unnecessary empty spaces. Later, these spaces began to be used as residential areas with cooking facilities, which falls under illegal construction under current law.

Multi-unit housing is generally limited to three floors for residential use. If a fourth floor is illegally used for residential purposes and discovered, the building is considered to be used for a non-conforming purpose, and an enforcement fine, a type of penalty, is imposed by the local government. These regulations aim to prevent illegal expansions such as rooftop rooms.

If rooftop rooms are legalized and included in the residential area, additional parking spaces must be secured. Existing multi-unit houses often have just enough parking spaces secured to optimize the land area. Therefore, if one more rooftop room becomes a living space, it is highly likely that at least 0.5 additional parking spaces will be required, leading to a situation where one more parking space will almost certainly need to be created.

Multi-unit housing is generally considered a single house, thus eligible for the single-house owner capital gains tax exception. Therefore, homeowners often mistakenly believe they won't have to pay much capital gains tax since they own one house. However, if there is a record of a rooftop room being illegally used as a room, tax authorities may take issue with it. There are often cases where multi-unit housing is reclassified as multi-family housing, leading to the application of multi-house capital gains tax and hefty tax collection.

Government deregulation is not simply a conversion; homeowners must meet the requirements themselves and apply to local governments for recognition as multi-unit housing. However, due to the physical limitation of securing parking spaces, the actual number of legalized cases is not expected to be very high. While regulations have been eased, the effect of increasing multi-unit housing supply may be limited due to practical parking issues.

Instead of forcing individual buildings to create parking spaces, it is necessary to consider utilizing nearby public parking lots or encouraging non-car use, similar to New York. Of course, inconvenience would follow, but this inconvenience would be reflected in the monthly/yearly rent prices of the multi-unit housing, left to market autonomy. Additionally, commercial spaces could be utilized on the first floor instead of piloti parking lots to revitalize streets.

Currently, most multi-unit houses have piloti parking on the first floor, which detracts from urban aesthetics. With parking lots on both sides of every house, there is insufficient space for commercial establishments, leading to a grim atmosphere in neighborhoods. Furthermore, the actual utilization rate of piloti parking is low, drawing criticism regarding space efficiency.

When considering the easing of parking regulations, a clear solution to the problem of illegal parking must be a prerequisite. If strict parking enforcement is carried out, there will be no incidents of illegal parking obstructing fire truck access or paralyzing urban functions. Stricter parking enforcement would shift parking demand to external public parking lots, leading to changes in the pricing system. As a result, parking regulations could be flexibly applied while ensuring public safety and convenience through strong enforcement.