Yongsan International Business District

Yongsan International Business District is the largest development ever undertaken in South Korea, a 495,000 square metre vertical city rising on a disused rail maintenance yard in Yongsan-gu, between Seoul Station and the Han River. Led by the Seoul Metropolitan Government with Korea National Railway, the roughly 51 trillion won masterplan stacks offices, housing, hotels, retail, culture and parkland into a single walkable district, with an average floor area ratio near 900 percent and a maximum of 1,700 percent on the landmark plot. Its centrepiece is a tower of about 100 storeys carrying observation decks and visitor attractions at its summit, linked to neighbouring high-rises by an elevated sky trail. Seoul is pairing the density with close to 500,000 square metres of green space, threading gardens from basement levels through podiums to rooftops so the built footprint is matched acre for acre by landscape. The district is planned as a smart city testbed for AI, digital twins, energy and advanced logistics, and is intended to draw global corporate headquarters to a site that sits within minutes of Seoul Station and Yongsan Park.