Interior ministry wins Cabinet approval for state property management overhaul

The interior ministry said Tuesday that a bill to overhaul how state-owned property is surveyed and managed passed a Cabinet meeting, adding requirements for a nationwide audit every five years and annual analysis of local government holdings.

The revision to the State Property and Goods Management Act would let the minister of the interior and safety assess the condition of state property held by local governments each year, with the work eligible to be delegated to specialist institutions designated by presidential decree and the results made public. A pilot survey in 2024 and 2025 cross-checked property registers against real estate registration books, land registers and building registers, uncovering about 157,000 previously unrecorded items worth some 20 trillion won ($14.7 billion).

The bill would put the five-year full survey of all state property held by local governments into law for the first time. Officials expect the combined measures to help find omitted assets, regularize unregistered property and put idle land to use.

The legislation also creates a basis for designating qualified bodies as state property specialist institutions, which would conduct research, carry out analysis and the full surveys, verify statistics, run an information system, and provide training and advice to local officials. The ministry can fund their work and revoke a designation or suspend operations if an institution no longer meets the criteria.

The revision also creates a state property information system that would consolidate data now kept separately by each local government and link it with spatial and other information.

For households hit by disasters, the bill simplifies the process for waiving user and rental fees on state property used for recovery and relief, removing the requirement to go through a state property review committee and obtain local council approval, which the ministry said should speed up temporary housing and recovery work after a disaster.

"State property depends on scientific, data-based management," Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said. "With this revision as a turning point, we will systematically reorganize state property that has been in blind spots and keep improving the system so that it can be actively used for the public and local communities."

The ministry said it will revise lower-level rules such as enforcement decrees and prepare detailed operating standards so that local governments can carry out the changes smoothly.