Optimal Project Planning for Public Rental Housing in South Korea

Although Korea has made notable progress in the availability of public rental housing, Korea's public rental housing representing 6.3% of the country's total housing is still below the 8% OECD average from 2016. The Seoul Metropolitan Area (composed of Seoul City, Incheon City, and Gyeonggi Province) has nearly 50% of the country's population, but 11% of the nation's territory, meaning the area suffers from an acute shortage of public rental housing. This is a serious problem which is hampering the sustainability of Korean society in general. We will examine the possibility of improving this public housing problem using certain algorithms to optimize decision making and resource allocation. This study reviews two pioneering studies on optimal investment portfolio for land development projects and optimal project combination for urban regeneration projects, and then optimizes a public housing investment combination to maximize the amount of public rental houses in Gyeonggi province using optimization techniques. Through the optimal investment combination, public rental houses were found to be more efficiently and sustainably planned for the community.