The Ministry of Finance yesterday said it was temporarily extending a ban on sales of state-owned properties in Taipei amid concerns that the auctions may fuel already soaring property prices.
The ministry made the announcement following a closed-door meeting with other government agencies and experts. It didn’t say how long the ban would be in effect, but said that it would thoroughly review opinion it collected from the meeting before “setting a tone” for the contentious bidding.
“Because home prices [in the Taipei area] have continued to rise, resuming state-owned property auctions would push prices further up. Plus, interest rates are still not very high,” a director at the National Property Administration said by telephone.
FREEZE
A freeze on sales of small lots measuring less than 500 ping (1,650m²) has been in place since March on the back of growing concern that the sales could aggravate rampant property speculation in Taipei city and county and price gouging among construction companies.
The legislature’s Finance Committee then passed a resolution that public land auctions in the Greater Taipei area be halted for six months and that the ministry conduct a review on the reinstatement of the auctions in six months.
Chang Chin-oh (張金鶚), a land economics professor at National Chengchi University, told the Taipei Times yesterday that the government should never resume sales of state-owned land, as only property developers and construction companies benefit.
“The proceeds from the sales of state-owned properties should go to the public rather than large corporations,” Chang said by telephone.
Chang, the only representative from the academia at yesterday’s meeting, said that both the central bank and the Council for Economic Planning and Development had voiced concern during the meeting that current real estate conditions were still the same as in March, so the auctions should continue to be suspended.
On June 23, the central bank adopted targeted prudential measures to curb real estate speculation in major cities, including capping each home mortgage in the Taipei area at 70 percent of collateral and barring extensions on the repayment of loan principal.
Although the government has established a mechanism in May to buy back properties that have been left idle for a long time to prevent land hoarding by speculators, Chang said: “If the properties had never been sold, the [hoarding] problem would not exist.”
‘ILLEGAL’
Representatives of various organizations also criticized the meeting, which they said was “illegal” as it ignored the opinion of civic groups. They demanded that future meetings be open to the public and media.
“Sales of state-owned properties will only widen the gap between the rich and the poor, and the disadvantaged will never benefit from it,” said Peng Yang-kai (彭揚凱), spokesman of an alliance of non-homeowners (無殼蝸牛聯盟).
The alliance said that the Taipei City Government has a rich horde of small lots totaling more than 17 hectares with an estimated value of NT$19.3 billion.
“The government should not curry favor with large corporations by selling the properties to them,” Peng said, adding that the land should be used or developed to benefit the public.
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