Controversy over properties of the three presidential candidates has turned into a contentious election issue, after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday announced he would donate his old family house, and asked the other two candidates to do the same.
Lai told reporters yesterday that he would place his family home in a coal mining area of New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) into a public trust with the priority objective to turn it into a memorial museum on the lives of miners.
However, the government must first protect the right to housing and legal residence for miners and their families, he added.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Lai originally announced the plan during Wednesday’s televised policy presentation for the presidential candidates, saying his family house had come under attack from the opposition, who labeled it an “illegally built structure” and accused Lai of expanding it illegally.
The house is one of hundreds of renovated miners’ housing units built decades ago in the area, Lai said.
However, over the years the mining companies closed down and many of the original small housing units were purchased and gradually renovated into today’s larger structures for safety reasons, he said.
These housing units predate the current Regional Plan Act (區域計畫法), which prohibited unauthorized expansion, Lai said, adding that the New Taipei City Government has yet to outline zoning following the termination of mining rights in the area, leaving residents without proper guidance in terms of housing renovation.
The DPP candidate asked if Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was willing to donate the farmland he co-owns in Hsinchu City that has been illegally used as a parking lot for tour buses.
He also asked New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, to donate his family’s Kaisuan Condominium (凱旋苑) on Taipei’s Yangmingshan (陽明山) near Chinese Culture University.
Ko yesterday said he might donate collected rental fees from the past two years it was a parking lot and retroactively pay its assessed income tax.
He said he had authorized friends to handle conversion work to restore the lot back to its original agricultural use.
Meanwhile, Hou said he had no need to donate to charity because the condominium was built legally.
“It is not an illegal structure, and we have paid all income and property taxes. The Taipei City Government has checked on it numerous times and always found the building to conform with all legal requirements,” he said.
However, DPP Legislator Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) at a separate news conference yesterday accused Hou of taking advantage of students, saying that rent at the complex had escalated five times from NT$18,200 per semester to NT$16,000 per month, meaning that student tenants must pay NT$96,000 per semester to live there.
Hung estimated that Hou’s family stands to make NT$20 million in rent revenue each year from the building’s 103 suites.
He accused Hou of being a hypocrite, saying that the candidate has campaigned on promises of support programs for young people and interest-free student loans, all while overcharging students.
He and other DPP members said that the building had been unlawful since the start, as it is on land zoned for residential housing, which cannot be converted to rental units.
They also alleged that Hou used his political influence to illegally split up the building into 99 addresses, “using a loophole to avoid paying higher taxes, as there is no need to pay property taxes if a unit is worth NT$100,000 or less.”
“In his four years as New Taipei City mayor, Hou has made no progress on building social housing, but now come election time, Hou has joined calls to improve housing, fight against high prices and urge for more social housing,” Hung said. “How can people believe Hou when he is a big landlord with many properties, enriching himself by raising students’ rents?”
Additional reporting by CNA
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