Housing policy socialization and de-commodification in South Korea

South Korea has undergone significant housing system transformations in recent decades involving radical expansions in state housing provision. Growth in social forms of public housing ostensibly contradicts the neoliberal trend toward the privatization of social housing sectors elsewhere in the developed world. This paper examines the nature, features and context of housing policy socialization in South Korea in terms of political and socioeconomic transformations. It addresses why extensions of public rental housing have been developed in different periods and how their role has changed over time. A particular concern is why the ostensible de-commodification or socialization of housing policy has been recently pursued alongside neo-liberalization in other domains and as housing shortage has eased. Important factors have been the legacies of developmentalist strategies that have prioritized economic growth over welfare conditions and increasing political contestation where inequalities in social and housing conditions have come to the fore.