The government yesterday lifted restrictions on foreign investors purchasing property with high expectations that the measure will spur the lagging property and real-estate sectors.
Foreign investors may submit applications to buy and develop properties beginning next week, after the Cabinet passed a package of regulations yesterday as part of attempts to boost the property market.
The amended regulations will allow foreign nationals to buy homes, commercial establishments, factories, churches, hospitals, schools, cemeteries, embassies and offices as these investments would be considered a boon to the economy.
Farmland would also be open to foreigners to purchase as long as they receive permission from the government.
Properties can be bought for commercial, private or non-profit use.
The new regulations will take effect after they are promulgated next week. The Cabinet only needs to serve notice to the Legislative Yuan.
Yesterday's move comes as the latest in a series of government measures aimed at breathing life into the sector, among them last month's decision to halve the land-value incremental tax for two years in an attempt to boost the real-estate sector.
Companies in Japan and Southeast Asia have indicated interest in investing in Taiwan, according to studies by property agents.
Foreign insurance giants such as ING Aetna Life, Metropolitan Insurance and Annuity have been rumored to be eyeing Taiwan's property market but are holding off until potential rates of return increase.
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