The problem is that many of them are stuffed up to their arse in properties! They consequently speak and legislate on behalf of the landlord class.
Guy
I think for the past 8 years there are new laws moving things in the right direction. Some people challenge the speed and intensity, although I now think getting to a point where people find it hard to make money off of owning properties right a way might have the complete opposite effect.
The problem is that a place like, which looks like it was built in the 70s or the 80s, didnāt cost 16K 4 years ago either. Meaning people who were staying at a place like that now might no longer be able afford it.
I donāt dispute this point, but the new legislature has seen the roaring return of the gangster / landlord class: the Yen family from Taichung is back (ugh) and Fu from Hualien is throwing his weight around (not always successfully, thank goodness).
I donāt have great hopes with this group.
Guy
They are the chosen representatives of their districts. The KMT and the TPP have launched successful internet campaigns to make DPP out to be the root of corruption in the eyes of many twenty-year-olds. The KMT now has the majority in the legislature, and the TPP has the seats to stop or pass any legislation they see fit. So far, theyāve done nothing about land and housing justice, but theyāve blocked a bunch of DPP reform bills and spent a lot of time to give legislature even more power.
+1, there are some real changes that will make an impact here, but definitely not overnight.
In particular, starting with sales after 2016 capital gains tax was adjusted to be a real capital gains tax on property sales. Previously the gain was calculated via accessed price and not the real price, so capital gains tax was essentially close to zero. With this change, a wealthy individual is more likely to invest elsewhere instead of dumping a ton of money into real estate.
There were also changes to prevent speculation on pre-sale houses and a 2021 capital gains tax change to fix a loophole around the 2016 change.
Itās still very cheap to own a place in Taiwan compared to other countries, which makes up for a lot of the high purchase price, but leaves a huge cost-prohibitive upfront price, particularly for young folks. The cost over time when you factor in things like the cost of buying/selling, property tax, mortgage rates, etc makes it hard to do a direct comparison just on sale prices per square meter.
If TW wants to move the needle here, a higher (or to be more specific, a more accurately accessed) property tax (particularly for a vacant unit) would probably help a bit + help normalize a culture of renting.
That violates three principles of the people and Georgism.
Yes and yes, especially for people owning more than 1 unit, and even more so for leaving them vacant, as in not paying taxes for income generated for the second or more properties.
The thing is a new version for that was passed in 2023 and is already going into effect this July, so the effect will be felt in tax season 2025.
One of the thing the bill did was to create a national property ownership database, which used to be hosted by each city and counties. Doing so means you canāt get away for owning multiple properties just because youāve got them all over the island.
If you and your immediate family (spouse, and under-aged children) owns just one property, property tax goes from 1.2% down to 1%. Otherwise if your family owns 3 or less, tax stays at 1.2%. If your family owns more than 3 houses, then property tax goes from 1.2% up to 2%~4.8%, which has to be determined by your local assembly. If you rent those properties out, then property tax goes back down to 1.5~2.4%.
Some people say it needs to be at least 10% for people owning more than 5 or 6 houses. However, doing it way too fast risks suffering the fate of Japan bursting their housing bubble. Taiwan is in a housing bubble, we just need to find a way for a soft landing.
From your limited experience ā¦
I have a friend who moved to Germany from Australia. He was able to find a place and get a rental contract for 3 years without any issues recently.
Of course he has employment in Germany so getting a lease was easy.
There are more unhoused people globally today than at any point in recorded human history. Mostly because globally, landownership has become all about personal wealth expansion and has less and less to do with basic shelter needs that all humans need. Humans have migrated quite a lot since before there were Homo sapiens (aka, since before we were humans). Canāt blame this on refugees.
Yet countries keep passing laws to make migration illegal unless youāre rich.
I am all for countries taking in refugees, Iām just talking about the logistics of the situation. Like, if the Japanese werenāt deported by force and 1.1 million Chinese refugees got to Taiwan in 1949, it might take a while to house all of them. In the meantime, do you count those people as homeless?
Taiwan today, like most places (including/especially Berlin specifically, since Germany was brought up), has housing available. But itās being hoarded by rich people who also donāt pay taxes and will happily rent it out for a price that no renter can afford. This means the government doesnāt have the resources to provide the possibility of new housing, because that money is sitting in the pockets of the people who hoarded the already existing housing stock. Furthermore, because the existing housing has created false scarcity (the housing is there but people refuse to make it available, aka theyāre hoarding it), the only way to profit off new builds is to build luxury housing, which even upper middle class incomes cannot afford. So we spiral down into worse and worse conditions for anyone that didnāt inherit property from their parents and grandparents and everyone else ends up on the street.
Nope, that place is truly a grotty shithole. No amount of ikea furniture is going to improve it. Certain gong yuās can be worked with to an extent, if the place is relatively clean and empty. With good lighting from balconys (a quite common feature) But the bathroom and kitchen are almost always in unacceptable grot level 9000 conditions.
Honestly iāve been searching on 591 for the last several days and i am just sick of the sight of Taiwanese houses. The only good options are danshui or pay more.
Yeah, thatās the exact bloody miserable process Iāve gone through every March for the last three or four years lol.
The problem of multiple heirs and interests is one of the things that makes the real estate market less liquid. Itās especially fun when some have moved overseas and are estranged from the others.
Of course central Taipei and the immediate surrounding areas are more expensive. Itās a big city by anyoneās standards, and itās the cultural, political, entertainment, and educational capital of Taiwan. And itās cheap by global standards. Average rent is said to be 20% of what you would pay in NYC and 1/3 of what you would pay in Boise Idaho. Itās cheaper than Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai, which are 30% of what you would pay in NYC.
You can rent a nice place in central Taipei for NT$50k and get quite a bit of value. But under about 35k, and you will be renting a traditional old walkup flat these days.
Taipei and its immediate surrounding areas are basically pretty far out at this point. I think this is the biggest difference between years past.
You are trying to say Taipei is cheap to rent for its value but i disagree. The actual value of these houses is super low, they are horrible. Not a small amount of them are literally home made rooftop houses. But they stick in some wine bottles and a plastic bathtub they bought in xiao bei bai huo and then somehow think its worth 20,000 ntd. Its a fucking shack.
The value of real estate isnāt in what itās made of, itās the location. A run down shack rents for 30,000 because itās 100 meters from Taipei 101.
There are mansion looking houses in rural West Virginia, costing only 100,000 US. Itās that value because of location.
If thatās true then where are all the shacks in New york, London, Tokyo. All these world class cities that Taipei is equal to and that we should be grateful to have cheaper rents than. I think youāll find its only Taiwan and hong kong that have such a ridiculous situation.