The Seoul city government announced a set of guidelines on providing subsidies for the construction of Korean traditional houses Thursday amid efforts to preserve such buildings in the city.
According to the new guidelines set up by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, those who erect new hanok, or Korean traditional accommodations, can receive up to 100 million won ($86,700), including 20 million won in special loans. If they are built within the special zones designated for the conservation of hanok, the subsidy goes up to as much as 150 million won.
The announcement came a few months after the Seoul city government expanded the scope of support from hanok-concentrated areas to all across the capital city in March.
The new standards also specified ambiguous conditions related to providing support, and overhauled the evaluation process, the city government said.
"The Seoul city government is keen on the traditional culture hanok represents and the future value it has," a city official Jung Yoo-seung said. (Yonhap)
