Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday outlined her housing policy platform, including proposing government management of private property rentals.
She was accompanied by several DPP local government heads, academics and policy advisers at a news conference in Taipei.
Tsai said that because many people are unable to buy their own homes after years or even decades of hard work, she has developed a housing policy, a housing-market management policy and a housing-industry policy to create a healthier environment and market.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
In addition to previously announced plans to build a total of 200,000 social housing units, Tsai said the government should get involved in rental management for private owners.
“There may be some elderly home owners who would like to rent their properties, but are no longer able to do so [on their own]. The government could manage the properties on their behalf,” said Hua Ching-chun (花敬群), an associate professor at Takming University of Science and Technology, who works with the school’s real-estate investment and management program and heads a research team on housing policy.
A government management plan would serve as an alternative to building social housing complexes, because new construction can be very expensive, Hua said.
To attract homeowners to the program, the government would offer reductions in both property taxes and rental income taxes, as well as free basic repairs and maintenance, Hua said.
“We would ask social welfare organizations to have disadvantaged families rent these homes, and the rent would be the same as if renting a social housing unit,” Hua said.
As for Tsai’s proposal to build 200,000 social housing units within eight years, Hua said that building such complexes would require about 280 hectares of land and government properties would be used to reduce the cost of land purchases.
Between 10 and 15 percent of the construction costs would be covered by the local government, between 10 and 15 percent by the central government and between 70 and 80 percent by bank loans, which would be repaid from the rental income, the professor said.
“Our objective is to create a housing policy that fits the public’s needs, and an industry that would effectively develop domestic needs,” Tsai said. “Why are we so willing to tackle the housing issue? Because it is not about buying and selling of properties, or a simple issue of high housing prices, it shows how much the government values and would protect the public’s right to housing.”
“The housing policy of a nation cannot be just a real-estate policy,” Tsai said.
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