The Taipei City Government yesterday said it would build public housing units on a piece of land owned by the air force in downtown Taipei and offer the apartments for rent to low-income families and disabled people in an effort to tackle skyrocketing housing prices.
The land, located in one of the city’s most expensive areas on the intersection of Renai Road and Jianguo S Road, will be used to build apartments with over 2,500 units.
Chiu Da-chan (邱大展), commissioner of Taipei City’s Department of Finance, said the city government would keep the monthly rent of each unit under NT$10,000, and only low-income families or the disabled would be eligible to rent the apartments.
The average monthly rent for an apartment unit in the area is about NT$40,000 to NT$50,000.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said the city is also planning to build public housing units at other vacant military bases and plots of land owned by it.
“It’s our job to make housing more affordable to the people in Taipei and we will start by increasing affordable rental housing units to 5 percent of all apartment complexes,” he said.
“A growing number of people are asking us to offer public housing units and we want to answer that request and make housing more affordable to the general public,” he said.
The city government also plans to rent 181 public housing units in June next year that are located near new MRT stations, including Xingtian Temple Station, Xianse (Sianse) Temple Station and Xindian (Sindian) Temple Station. The rent will be about 80 percent of the average rent in the areas.
Hau dismissed concerns that the plan was announced to solicit support for his re-election bid in next month’s Taipei mayoral election and said the Department of Finance and other related departments would implement the policy regardless of the election result.
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