Ren Mei-ling (任美玲), wife of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), promised to provide subsidies to student renters in their property on Taipei’s Yangmingshan (陽明山), Hou’s campaign staff said yesterday.
Hou has been accused of exploiting renters during his election campaign over his family’s Kaisuan Condominium (凱旋苑) near Chinese Culture University.
At a news conference in Taipei, Hou’s campaign team presented a letter from Ren in which she vowed to convert the 103-room building, which she inherited from her father, into social housing for young people.
Photo: CNA
“My family has legal ownership of the property, and we legally refurbished it into a condominium,” she wrote in the letter.
Everything related to the property is legal and the family has paid tax on the rental income, she said.
As the property has been managed by Shin-Kong Life Real Estate Service Co (新壽大廈管理維護公司) since 2019, the family has not been involved in increasing rents, she said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
When the management agreement ends in June 2026, the family would convert the property into social housing units for young people, she said.
Although the family cannot change the rents under the management contract, they would seek to subsidize a portion of students’ rents with aid of NT$6,000 per month for single rooms and NT$7,000 for doubles, she said.
Students and advocates on Monday protested outside the building, saying that Hou’s family was profiting off of students, with rents rising annually by at least 5 percent.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokeswoman Michelle Lin (林楚茵) said that Kaisuan Condominium is registered under Yoyu Co Ltd (又昱實業有限公司), which is headed by Hou’s daughter Hou Yu-fan (侯昱帆).
The company in 2011 signed a 15-year contract with Chinese Culture University to provide housing for students, and in that time, Hou You-yi’s family had made more than NT$300 million (US$9.72 million) from the property, Lin said.
She also said that the company subdivided the building into 99 separate addresses to avoid paying property taxes.
“Since obtaining the property’s operating license in 1997, Hou’s family has evaded paying tax for 26 years, for about NT$4 million in total,” she said.
“Many students cannot afford the condominium’s high rent, with its yearly 5 percent increases, so they want to terminate their rental agreements, but Yoyu would not let them,” DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.
Hou You-yi’s campaign deputy director Hsieh Cheng-ta (謝政達) filed a judicial complaint against DPP members, alleging that they contravened election laws by erecting billboards with photographs of Hou You-yi that said he earned NT$20 million per year from student renters.
DPP spokesman Chang Chih-hao (張志豪) said Hou You-yi should explain how he can support housing justice while also profiting from student renters.
“Hou cannot evade these questions. People are seeking clarification on his family’s properties, which runs contrary to his voiced support for housing justice,” Chang said.
Chang said that yearly rent increases of 5 percent with compound interest would add up to NT$20 million over the past few years, adding that Hou You-yi should explain if that amount is correct.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
RSS