The supply of public housing is expected to reach nearly 100,000 units by 2029, with one-fifth reserved for newlyweds and families, as officials seek to address the challenges of affordable housing and a low birthrate, the Ministry of the Interior said on Sunday.
About 60,000 new public housing units are expected to be completed nationwide by 2029, bringing the total to nearly 100,000 when added to the 36,000 units already completed, data from the ministry’s Real Estate Information Platform showed.
A portion of the housing would be reserved for families as part of efforts to boost the birthrate, the ministry said.
Photo: Taipei Times
The number of newborns in Taiwan has been less than 200,000 for eight consecutive years since 2017, ministry data showed.
The crude birth rate — the number of live births per 1,000 people per year — has been below 10 since 2004, the data showed.
Last year, about 134,800 births were recorded, or a crude birth rate of 5.76 — a record low since data collection began.
Taiwan’s low birthrate stems from multiple factors, including wage structures, housing policies and changing life attitudes, a source said, citing surveys.
“It has become increasingly common for young Taiwanese not to marry, while even among those who do marry, many hesitate over whether to have children,” the source said. “Newlyweds often face the difficult choice of either having children or buying a home.”
The government should stabilize housing supply and improve wage structures, they said.
As part of a policy to stabilize housing, the government would designate 20 percent of public housing as “family housing,” giving priority to newlyweds and families with children, the ministry said.
From next year to 2028, the central government plans to open 41,000 new public housing units for rent, it said, adding that by the end of that period, it would manage more than 45,000 rental units, becoming Taiwan’s largest landlord.
“About 9,000 units are to be reserved for newlyweds and families with children, bringing the total number of family housing units to about 11,000 when combined with units built previously,” it said.
Colliers International Taiwan director Huang Shu-wei (黃舒衛) said that with the National Housing and Urban Regeneration Center to be the nation’s largest landlord, its responsibilities would extend beyond management of the number of units.
Each public housing complex functions as an independent community, requiring effective operations, facility management, equipment maintenance and coordination of social welfare services, Huang said.
Support services include things such as childcare, after-school programs and school zoning, the provision of which would be a major challenge, he said.
Improving such services to build a social safety net has long been an underdeveloped area in national policy and urban planning, he added.
Separately, housing researcher Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said that increasing the supply is only the first step of an effective public housing policy.
The next step would be to “ensure sound management,” Ho said.
“As the number of public housing units expands, disputes and administrative challenges will follow, and the demand for management personnel will surge,” he said. “The government should plan ahead to address these issues.”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS