What do they plan to do with all these empty houses they own?
Nothing. That’s thing.
My wife’s family has many vacant properties. I ask what they do with them and they shrug their shoulders.
They collect them like Pokémon. They boast about them with friends and family. They don’t rent them out or maintain them. After 3 years they look like they are 20 years old.
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They need a yearly property tax. Something like a percentage of market value plus a transfer tax on sales. It won’t stop the hoarding but it may address the value issue. Or not. I don’t really know how properties are valued.
There are a lot of these all over Northern Taiwan, Taipei, New Taipei City, Linkou, Danseui,
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All that can be done is the government take these empty properties from the hoarders and then rent them out. There’s no capitalistic way to stop behaviors like this.
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really? that’s a solution? c’mon.
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Fact is none of the measures government takes will stem property value. More taxes just means they will hoard them further. Higher down payment means average person will be priced out of the property market. You need to understand property hoarders are so rich they can buy a 20 million dollar property every few years in cash. They do this because that 20 million dollar house will be worth 40 million in 10 years.
Only way to stop this is somehow crash the property market.
Only authoritarian measures will do this. The government should give an ultimatum. Rent them out or the government seizes them with minimal compensation.
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uh. okay.
Please send in your resume to ministry of economics. 
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Or the government builds properties themselves and sell it well below market value.
Flood the market with cheap properties.
Like a 30 ping flat for 1 million, only for first time homeowners, no money down, 30 year mortgage.
This will crash property value.
They are doing this.
A lot of the new buildings that went up this past year or two in Sanxia have been affordable housing projects.
Problem is, the construction is horrible. Sewage is leaking through the walls!
exactly. And Taiwan_Luthiers complains about TRA.
You want the gov’t building apartments. Zoiks.
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It’s just a little more tax on the gains, easily compensated by a higher amount under the table.
And now you have to explain to millions of constituents why you wiped out the value of their wealth overnight. Figuratively speaking.
Have fun next election!
There’s no way to address this without hurting someone. Either someone has their wealth wiped out or property remains expensive.
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I know what @Taiwan_Luthiers means. Extreme measures and wiping out gloated property wealth is the only way that housing hoarding will stop. The people I know who hoard houses still live in the first one they bought. Then they let their son live in one of them for a few months before convincing him that he wants to “come home”. All the other properties sit empty. It’s a colossal waste of resources, drives up the cost of home ownership for even generally high income individuals, and means there’s some serious Monopoly money in the market.
I have joked that if I won the mega millions (lottery in the US, sometimes gets up to 500 mil USD), I would build properly luxury apartments around Taipei that must be lived in for one year before someone could buy their own, currently rented unit. Then I would require all residents of the unit to register their hukou to that address. Anyone not registered to live in the unit caught living there would face a massive fine. I would make it explicitly clear in the contract and hire people to keep an eye on who’s coming in and out of the building all the time. Cuz that’s the other thing: mom owns and registers hukou at one address, dad another, mom and dad buy third property in child 1’s name and hukou, next in child 2’s, etc. Then you’re not just hoarding property for the sake of hoarding it, you’re not getting taxed on your additional properties as additional property AND, since income taxes are based on household registration, you’re avoiding the higher tax bracket that you should be paying since everyone is actually living together.
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You cant solve this in a democracy… It’s going to require authoritarian measures.
I can’t register houkou at any rented units at all. No landlords will do this. Basically every landlord out there is engaged in some kind of tax evasion.
I suggest tsai eng wen to do this because she is politically finished and she isn’t reelecting either.
No, you can actually create measures to promote living in other much much much cheaper cities, just like the government (under DPP) is throwing all kinds of investment money down to Tainan and Kaohsiung.
Live down here. Properties cheap and jobs are a-arriving.
My friend, it’s a trend that won’t end.
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You could do it without becoming authoritarian. The government could randomly check to see that people who have their hukou registered to an address actually live there. If it’s clearly unoccupied, require the person to correct the matter in 10 days or face stiff penalties. Chicago public schools does this all the time with children who are attending their very excellent magnet schools. Kids who are actually from the suburbs are charged the full cost of tuition, something in the ballpark of US$25,000/yr. They’re lucky they don’t get sued for fraud, which is what is happening with these properties in Taiwan.
Give property tax incentives to people who actually rent out their properties, but make them pay taxes on the income from rent or else, again, face stiff penalties. The fact that it’s easy as AF for landlords to dodge paying taxes on earned income from rent is not helping the inflated housing costs. I live in a roof top apartment right now. My landlord gets 20,000/month from me and pays NOTHING in taxes. That’s bull 
Corporation/shell companies own lots of residential property “to rent out to employees”? Require the corporation to pay 18% income taxes on whatever the monthly cost of the apartment is. The government would have the costs in front of them and be able to figure out if they’re claiming rent that’s significantly lower than it really is. (ie, a $1,000,000 unit on a 30 year, 0% mortgage should be rented out for no less than $2,777/month. The company would then owe a minimum of $500/month in taxes, even if they claimed they rented the apartment out for only $200/month). It’s really a simple matter of taxing the way that the tax structure should be. Or require the CEO of the corporation to put all the properties in their name and registration. Any property without a name to it is seized by the government with no compensation. See how quickly millions of shell companies disappear.
I don’t even think that would be a “tax increase” as the GOP likes to gripe about in the US. It would literally just be the government requiring the people using the services and land to actually pay for those services and land. Color me shocked.
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So the government is trying to kill people?
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I stand by to act as an agent for local property traders to save them tax .