Four major land developers yesterday won the opportunity to join an auction tomorrow for four plots of land reserved for low-cost housing units near a planned mass rapid transit (MRT) station linking Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and downtown Taipei.
Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設), Huang Hsiang Construction Co (皇翔建設), as well as Lih Pao Construction Co (麗寶建設) and its affiliate Advancetek Enterprise Co (名軒開發), passed the review stage to build 4,300 low-cost homes in Linkou Township (林口), said Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文), director-general the Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency.
The housing units, on 9.81 hectares of land, are expected to cost from NT$4.5 million (US$156,000) to NT$7.5 million each, with floor space ranging from 30 ping (99m2) to 50 ping, Yeh said.
According to Yeh, these figures of about NT$150,000 per ping are 70 percent to 80 percent lower than market prices for brand-new homes in the area.
“Whichever firm has the highest bid will win,” Yeh said, putting net profits at 10 percent to 15 percent for the winning bidder.
The project is the government’s latest response to increasingly unaffordable housing in Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市) as the recently implemented luxury tax has so far failed to rein in house prices.
The new housing could be put on the presale market as early as the end of this year and construction could be completed by the end of next year, ahead of the extension of the MRT service to the airport the following year, Yeh said.
To prevent speculation, the government prohibits owners from reselling low-cost housing units for five years after purchase, he said.
The agency previously expected that 2,400 low-cost housing units would be built on the plots, but Farglory Development and Lih Pao Construction said they could raise the number by 80 percent by adding more floors.
“Different approaches to codes governing the floor area ratio, building density and the greening rate mean they can do this,” Yeh said.
The bidders will use energy-saving designs and devices when constructing the buildings, which will also be surrounded by ample green space, he said.
The housing project in Linkou is just part of the agency’s plan to inject about 10,000 low-cost homes into the market, Yeh said.
The agency is scheduled to auction more land in Banciao (板橋) and Lujhou (蘆洲) in New Taipei City in September, he added.
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