Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should push for revisions to the Housing Act (住宅法) immediately, housing rights advocates said yesterday, while giving a failing grade to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) housing policy over accusations he did not follow up his promises and slogans with resources and changes to regulations.
“The Ma administration treated housing policy as if it were real-estate policy, acting as though if the real-estate market is healthy and building continues, problems would naturally be resolved,” Housing Movement spokesperson Peng Yang-kai (彭揚凱) said, adding that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration had failed to act decisively to address housing speculation and problems in the rental market.
“The Ma administration’s resolve was also lacking, so even though it had lots of big slogans about housings rights, public housing, taking care of disadvantaged groups and repressing speculation, it never really acted on them,” Peng said, citing public housing as an example of promises that had failed to lead to tangible results.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
While his group supports Tsai’s promise to construct 200,000 public housing units, it was still unclear whether her administration would demonstrate the necessary resolve, Peng said, adding that details of policies such as how Tsai would improve the rental market remain unclear.
Housing rights advocates will watch for whether Tsai pushes through revisions to the act this year, he said, adding that legal amendments are the key to achieving substantial change.
“Because the regulations are not complete, the government lacks the necessary tools,” making it difficult for local governments to use central government land to construct social housing, he said.
The government has also failed to provide adequate tax incentives to encourage public housing, while it has not provided sufficient guarantees that such housing benefits disadvantaged groups, he said.
Another key indicator of resolve would be whether the incoming administration’s first budget allocates sufficient funds and personnel to carrying out its housing policy.
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