Korea overhauls public property management with new law

The interior ministry said Tuesday that a revised law governing public property will take effect immediately, introducing annual management audits, a five-year nationwide survey of state and local assets and a simplified procedure for waiving fees for disaster victims.

The Public Property and Goods Management Act requires the minister to analyze and diagnose local governments' management of public property every year and to disclose the results, and gives the minister a legal basis to designate specialist institutions to support that work and to build an information system for managing public property and goods.

The revision is intended to move public property management beyond simple possession and upkeep toward accurate surveys, scientific analysis and diagnosis, support from specialist institutions and information-system-based management and use, the ministry said.

At the center of the revision is a five-year survey of all public property, which the ministry can commission to a designated specialist institution. A pilot survey conducted from 2024 to 2025 uncovered about 157,000 previously unrecorded assets worth approximately 20 trillion won ($15 billion) by cross-checking public property registers against real estate registration, land and building ledgers.

The revision also simplifies procedures for residents in disaster-affected areas, allowing usage or rental fees to be waived for disaster recovery and relief without the previously required approval from a local public property review committee and local council. The ministry said the change is expected to speed up temporary housing support and recovery work using public property after a disaster.

"Just as the pilot project uncovered 20 trillion won in hidden assets, data-based scientific management is the key for public property," Interior Minister Yoon Ho-jung said. "With this revision as an opportunity, we will systematically reorganize public property in blind spots and continue to improve the systems so that it can be actively used for the people and local communities."

The filing listed the amendment as a change to the Special Act on the Establishment of the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City, which adjusted a cross-reference in Article 60. The ministry said the substantive change is to the Public Property and Goods Management Act.

The ministry said it will revise subordinate legislation, including enforcement decrees, and prepare detailed operating standards to help local governments implement the revised system.