| The Current Status of Rural Vacant Houses and Policy Tasks | |||
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| Author | Jung, Moonsoo | ||
| Views | 80204 | Publication Date | 2021.03.15 |
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Background and Purpose of Research ○ Vacant houses in rural areas have negatively impacted on the rural community in terms of security, safety, and landscape. Rural vacant houses are mostly run-down, with their heating and insulation functions out of order. Most of these vacant houses are often in poor conditions that they have to be demolished. Some of them are in relatively good shape, but their renovation for other purposes face problems as they are private properties even though their owners neglect them. ○ As the Agricultural and Fishing Villages Improvement Act revised in February 2020 prepared grounds for renovating or utilizing vacant rural houses, the government has materialized its policy measures for vacant house surveys, demolition, and maintenance. The central and local governments and rural communities need to seek ways to deal with vacant houses and prepare action plans. Against this backdrop, this research suggests logic for the public sector’s intervention and proposes policy directions and measures to resolve the issue. ○ This research analyzes the state of vacant rural houses from various perspectives and explores related social and legal conditions. Based on the analysis, it aims to suggest policy tasks to maintain and reuse vacant houses neglected in rural areas. Research Methodology ○ First, we explored the current state of relevant legal, regulatory, and policy. We analyzed policy implementation for vacant house renovation and local governments’ responsiveness after the revision of the Agricultural and Fishing Villages Improvement Act. ○ Second, by using KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corp.)’s electric energy consumption data per house and MAFRA(Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs)’s rural vacancy surveys, we saw the differences in vacant houses in urban and rural areas, the distribution of vacant houses by region, and the annual vacancy trend. ○ Third, we selected five villages to conduct surveys on vacancy, residents, and vacant house owners. We explored relevant project models to check outcomes and challenges. ○ Fourth, we suggested policy directions and improvement tasks. We explored legal and regulatory frameworks in the U.K. and Japan and how they approached the issue. Based on the thorough analysis, we came up with policy tasks from three aspects: I) the central and local governments’ roles, II) ways to encourage the landlords to maintain their vacant houses, and III) the voluntary actions of the private sector, including local communities. (For more information, please refer to the report.) |
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