Multi-family housing construction project in collective replotting

The replotting-type urban development project has introduced a "collective replotting" system to supply large-scale apartment land. Previously, however, projects proceeded like usual apartment developments, contacting individual landowners for purchase and land-use consent. As a result, collective replotting deviated from its original purpose of smoothly supplying common land. This created not only inconvenience in promoting the project but also serious risk: the apartment construction project on collective replotting could be stalled because of a single landowner’s change of mind or demand for inflated prices. However, the collective replotting of the urban development project was originally planned for the construction of collective buildings and was organized as a group of housing construction sites. A special characteristic is that apartment construction projects by separate entities are expected to be carried out on these sites. While urban development and apartment housing construction rest on different legal bases, they operate as paired projects that are closely related to each other. In its Decision 2017Du70946 (March 29, 2018), the Supreme Court for the first time interpreted approval of the entire collective replotting project of the urban development association as a valid right to use housing construction sites, thereby stating the characteristics of the collective replotting method. This ruling significantly affected apartment housing construction projects through collective replotting. It is expected to foster meaningful improvements and more studies on various aspects, such as securing site-use rights and selecting the housing construction project entities, in consideration of the specific features of the collective replotting method after the judgment.