South Korea's Urban Regeneration New Deal — Neighbourhood-Scale Renewal Since 2017

Launched by South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) in December 2017, the Urban Regeneration New Deal funds neighbourhood-scale renewal — from small residential 'Our Neighbourhood Restoration' schemes to larger industrial/port 'Economic-Base Type' projects — selected annually across five categories, as an alternative to demolition-and-rebuild redevelopment. Mandatory local Urban Regeneration Support Centers institutionalise resident participation.

MOLIT selected 68 sites in December 2017, 99 in 2018 and 116 in 2019 (283 cumulative through 2019), backed by a five-year (2018–2022) national funding target of roughly KRW 50 trillion (about US$44 billion) combining state finance, the Housing and Urban Fund and public-enterprise investment.

A 2023 peer-reviewed Heliyon study of Busan sites found average population continued falling by 8.8% after project completion (one site down 38.2%), even as local business counts rose 37.6% on average — only one studied site gained population. An independent review of MOLIT's own project database, reported by Seoul Economic Daily in 2026, found only 19% of 116 completed projects rated 'excellent', 63% 'average' and 19% 'unsatisfactory', attributed mainly to lost maintenance funding and staff once state support ended. A KRIHS case study of the flagship Daegu Jung-gu project found visitor numbers rising from about 300 (2008) to 1.1 million (2015), but grocery stores falling from 25 to 10 and clothing stores from 5 to 3 as cafés grew from zero to seven — a documented gentrification effect alongside commercial revival.

The programme shows real institutional scale and continuity, but its own evaluation evidence points to persistent population decline at most studied sites and uneven post-completion outcomes once state funding ends.