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The location will actually be Gyeonggi-do, south-east of Seoul. This area is close to the existing semiconductor regions of S.Korea, such as Pyeongtaek, Giheung

The location will actually be Gyeonggi-do, south-east of Seoul. This area is close to the existing semiconductor regions of S.Korea, such as Pyeongtaek, Giheung, etc. So it's quite an organic decision to select such a location, as also all the suppliers and customers are already located in this region. Relocating to an entirely different region would just delay the process and actually risk to collapse the economy for quite mundane reasons. Other Industries have their center of weight located more south, like Automotive and Energy. One "mundane reason" to imagine the complexity: People now working in semiconductor sector all live around Seoul. Apartments in Korea are not rented but predominantly purchased on loan. Just announcing to pull a whole industry further away from Seoul would immediately drive up housing prices of the destination and collapse the housing prices in Seoul. So people selling to relocate could not pay off their loans with that money and could not acquire at the destination due to huge debt. Seoul real-estate market could collapse, and since most of it is owned on loan, it would at least immobilize the whole Seoul region (as people could not relocate without risking bancrupcy), at worst cause banks to no longer accept the apartments as sufficient security for the loan.

kijin 4y ago
I think you're grossly exaggerating the real estate implications. There are 25 million people in the capital region, and only a small fraction of them work in the semiconductor industry. Relocating 200-300K people to a new industrial center might ease the pressure on housing a little bit, but there are millions more waiting to move in. Moreover, Seoulites really, seriously, desperately don't want to move out. The government has tried many times to create new cities away from Seoul with stable public-sector jobs; but a lot of people who work in Sejong, for example, just keep living in Seoul and make the 250km round trip every day. The 300K who actually moved to Sejong didn't make a dent in housing prices anywhere else, either.
pigsty 4y ago
> Just announcing to pull a whole industry further away from Seoul would immediately drive up housing prices of the destination and collapse the housing prices in Seoul. That’s a win for the average person in Seoul. Housing prices are destroying this generation of young people.
- Misdicorl 4y ago
  Are housing prices in Seoul seeing the same inflation we see in many western cities? I'd be mildly surprised. (Anecdotally) It seems like Asian cultures are much less likely to treat housing as an investment and/or allow the few to dictate to the many (specifically in the housing arena).
  - bgar 4y ago
    >It seems like Asian cultures are much less likely to treat housing as an investment Isn’t China one of the most prominent examples of using real estate as investment? There’s even whole ghost towns of apartment buildings that are constructed for this purpose.
    - dmoy 4y ago
      yea all my Chinese (in China) relatives assume you should only invest in housing. And then when we tell them we have zero investment properties, they get really, really concerned for our future welfare and think that we're not doing very well.
    - Misdicorl 4y ago
      Isn't all that investment outside of China? My understanding was ghost towns weren't investment based but planning failure based
      - bobthepanda 4y ago
        No, domestic savers have capital controls and do not have the means to move money easily outside the country. The stock market also is not reliable in China as an avenue of investment. Government pensions are also small. So that mostly leaves real estate. Evergrande Group is emblematic of the real estate industry’s trouble there. Property is 15-30% of Chinese GDP and much of it goes towards investment property.
        Misdicorl 4y ago
stevenjgarner 4y ago
The distance between Gyeonggi-do, Korea and the DMZ is approximately 65 km (40 miles).
seoulmetro 4y ago
You dig into a lot of statements that don't really relate to this. It's not about housing prices. It's been proven that building more stuff outside of Seoul's greater region will not decrease Seoul housing prices... It's just that leaving Seoul is not worth it for anyone involved.

kijin 4y ago

I think you're grossly exaggerating the real estate implications. There are 25 million people in the capital region, and only a small fraction of them work in the semiconductor industry. Relocating 200-300K people to a new industrial center might ease the pressure on housing a little bit, but there are millions more waiting to move in. Moreover, Seoulites really, seriously, desperately don't want to move out. The government has tried many times to create new cities away from Seoul with stable public-sector jobs; but a lot of people who work in Sejong, for example, just keep living in Seoul and make the 250km round trip every day. The 300K who actually moved to Sejong didn't make a dent in housing prices anywhere else, either.

pigsty 4y ago

> Just announcing to pull a whole industry further away from Seoul would immediately drive up housing prices of the destination and collapse the housing prices in Seoul. That’s a win for the average person in Seoul. Housing prices are destroying this generation of young people.

Misdicorl 4y ago
Are housing prices in Seoul seeing the same inflation we see in many western cities? I'd be mildly surprised. (Anecdotally) It seems like Asian cultures are much less likely to treat housing as an investment and/or allow the few to dictate to the many (specifically in the housing arena).
- bgar 4y ago
  >It seems like Asian cultures are much less likely to treat housing as an investment Isn’t China one of the most prominent examples of using real estate as investment? There’s even whole ghost towns of apartment buildings that are constructed for this purpose.
  - dmoy 4y ago
    yea all my Chinese (in China) relatives assume you should only invest in housing. And then when we tell them we have zero investment properties, they get really, really concerned for our future welfare and think that we're not doing very well.
  - Misdicorl 4y ago
    Isn't all that investment outside of China? My understanding was ghost towns weren't investment based but planning failure based
    - bobthepanda 4y ago
      No, domestic savers have capital controls and do not have the means to move money easily outside the country. The stock market also is not reliable in China as an avenue of investment. Government pensions are also small. So that mostly leaves real estate. Evergrande Group is emblematic of the real estate industry’s trouble there. Property is 15-30% of Chinese GDP and much of it goes towards investment property.
      - Misdicorl 4y ago

stevenjgarner 4y ago

The distance between Gyeonggi-do, Korea and the DMZ is approximately 65 km (40 miles).

seoulmetro 4y ago

You dig into a lot of statements that don't really relate to this. It's not about housing prices. It's been proven that building more stuff outside of Seoul's greater region will not decrease Seoul housing prices... It's just that leaving Seoul is not worth it for anyone involved.