The city of Seoul’s Moa Housing initiative is an innovative urban renewal strategy launched in 2022 to revitalize aging, low-rise residential areas that are difficult to redevelop on a larger scale. These neighborhoods—developed in the 1960s and 1980s—consist of compact, multi-family housing districts with narrow streets, insufficient parking, outdated infrastructure, and limited green spaces.
To overcome these challenges, the initiative introduces a new model that consolidates small plots of land for collective development, enabling residents to build high-quality housing while securing underground parking, green spaces, and other infrastructure. Once consolidated and infrastructure is established, these areas are designated as “Moa Towns.”
Unlike conventional redevelopment—which can take 10 years and require two-thirds of buildings to be in poor condition—Moa Housing operates on a faster four to five-year timeline. It streamlines the process and offers favorable conditions, including regulatory exemptions and incentives. The program is built on resident participation, supported by public–private partnerships, and aims to provide 30,000 new homes across 100 Moa Towns in 25 years, with the first town scheduled for completion in 2028.
Moa Housing is a maintenance project in which homeowners collectively own and manage individual parcels of land and develop them together into high-quality housing on a block-by-block basis. It is a small-scale urban renewal model focused on low-rise residential areas that are hard to redevelop under traditional large-scale projects.
The model gathers low-rise areas (within 100,000 square meters) with a mix of old and new buildings, establishes a regional unit, and creates a management plan. Once underground parking and green spaces are secured, the area is designated as a “Moa Town” and implemented through a streamlined process with better incentives than conventional redevelopment.
Moa Housing targets long-standing issues common in aging, low-rise neighborhoods that hinder livability and safety.
Traditional redevelopment requires at least two-thirds of buildings be in poor condition—Moa Housing does not. Projects can proceed without major building deterioration in hard-to-develop locations.
Moa Housing projects are exempt from architectural and urban management standards, such as height and floor area ratio, as long as site conditions are met. Timeline is significantly faster: 4–5 years versus 10 years or more for conventional projects.
Moa Towns are selected either through a contest conducted by borough offices or consultation based on residents’ proposals. After meeting eligibility conditions, a management plan must be submitted to the autonomous district. The required conditions are:
At least two cooperatives must be established to implement small-scale housing maintenance. Consent from at least two-thirds of the land area targeted by the project must be obtained.
As of June 2025, 111 neighborhoods have been selected as Moa Town project sites. One site is currently under construction and expected to be completed around 2028.
The initiative provides valuable insights into small-scale, community-centered urban renewal from structural change in low-rise housing at appropriate densities, addressing issues such as isolated projects, inadequate infrastructure, and disconnected living environments to demonstrating community engagement, sustainable design, and localized planning that can deliver high-impact results and scalable, replicable model for other urban centers facing similar renewal challenges.
