The Council of Agriculture (COA) has proposed draft amendments to the Regulations Governing the Building of Agricultural Houses on Agricultural Land (農業用地興建農舍辦法) aimed at relaxing farmhouse ownership regulations by allowing the acquisition of foreclosed farmhouses by non-farmers and the gifting of farmhouses to relatives within two degrees of consanguinity of the owner.
To curb farmland speculation and building of houses for non-agricultural use, which has increased since the lifting of the farmland-for-farmers-only restriction in the Agricultural Development Act (農業發展條例) promulgated in 2010, the council in May proposed amendments to regulations that prohibit non-farmers from purchasing or selling farmland.
The first draft of amendments was announced last month, stipulating that only farmers and people who engage in bona fide agricultural activities are entitled to construct and buy farmhouses, while permitting the acquisition of farmhouses by non-farmers only via inheritance.
The council submitted the second draft of amendments to the Ministry of the Interior on Friday last week, which would allow non-farmers to purchase foreclosed farmhouses, while permitting farmhouse owners to bestow properties on relatives who are within two degrees of consanguinity of the owner.
The council said that it made the latest amendments after it collected more than 30,000 responses to the issue last month, with the draft amendments to be announced by the ministry and come into effect in two weeks at the earliest.
The council said that allowing non-farmers to bid for foreclosed farmhouses is likely to boost bidding and prevent failed bids, which it said is beneficial to indebted farmers who cannot afford to repay mortgages, while it still prohibits farmhouse owners from purchasing foreclosed farmhouses.
Taiwan Rural Front secretary-general Frida Tsai (蔡培慧) said that permitting non-farmers to procure farmhouses via foreclosure could open a loophole for property speculation.
The council should maintain the principle of “agricultural land solely for agricultural use” by helping handle foreclosed properties with the council’s farmland bank before selling them to other farmers, Tsai said.
In related news, the Miaoli County Government is to start demolishing buildings registered as farmhouses, but not used for agricultural purposes, next month.
The move was announced after members of the Control Yuan last month found that the practice of misappropriating farmhouses for non-agricultural use has been rampant in the county, as local developers promote the sale of farmland by offering “free farmhouses.”
To circumvent the provisions in the Agricultural Development Act that stipulate non-farmers in possession of farmland cannot build farmhouses during the first two years of possession, developers and real-estate brokers often build “farmhouses” using the proprietor’s capacity as a farmer before selling the farmland along with such properties to non-farmers, the county government said.
Many such buildings have been reported and buildings found to have been used for non-agricultural use would be demolished, it added.
The Miaoli County Government quoted a Control Yuan report as saying that: “The practice of developers bundling farmland and farmhouses for sale skews normal market behavior, which deviates from the principle of agricultural land solely for agricultural use and shifts responsibility to consumers. The [Miaoli] county government is ordered to clamp down on such practices.”
The county government said those who have bought such buildings can apply for administrative relief.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS