Taoyuan as the leader in social housing with multiple measures to achieve policy objectives of 20,000 units in 4 years.

Mayor Cheng: Taoyuan as the leader in social housing with multiple measures to achieve policy objectives of 20,000 units in 4 years

After reviewing the “Taoyuan Public (Social) Housing” presentation given by the Department of Urban Development when chairing the city governance meeting on March 23th, Taoyuan City Mayor Cheng Wen-Tsan expressed that Taoyuan is leading the 6 cities in the speed and budget allocation for establishing social housing. Taoyuan City Government shall sustain its efforts in achieving the policy objective of providing “20,000 units of social housing within 4 years” through government construction projects as well as providing incentives to encourage private firms to do the same. This goal of 20,000 units in 4 years is both reasonable and feasible, and Mayor Cheng is confident that ongoing projects will be planned and finalized accordingly.

Mayor Cheng explained that not every social housing will be constructed by the government. His politics during the elections was to use multiple approaches to build these housing units. The “Housing Act” also specified 2 means of constructing social housing, namely government construction or providing incentives to encourage private development. A diverse selection of feasible measures have been employed, such as renting buildings constructed by private sectors, converting empty houses into social houses with “rent and manage” packages, distributing of building bulk and urban renewal incentives, or conducting joint development programs with the armed forces.

Mayor Cheng pointed out that Taoyuan is now the leader in terms of the rate of establishing social housing and has allocated a 2-year housing fund of NT$ 3.42 billion. A total of 10 plots of land have been acquired during Phase 1 of the Taoyuan City Government-built social housing program which included 3,300 units. Design tenders have been issued and construction tendering will soon commence. Estimated construction costs would be NT$ 105,000 to 110,000 per ping (3.31 square meter which is lower than the NT$ 120,000 in Taipei city. Once construction is complete, the distribution of the housing units shall follow provisions of the “Housing Act,” with 60% allocated for general users, 30% for special users (underprivileged backgrounds), and 10% for priority users (policy priorities such as Taiwanese aborigines as well as dormitories for police and fire department personnel). Taoyuan City Government is currently leading the way in terms of progress, scale, and policy advancements for social housing programs throughout Taiwan.

Taoyuan City Government has planned to construct a total of 12,300 units of social housing. In addition to the 3,300 units mentioned above, other projects include 6,000 units within the Aerotropolis projects, and 500 units for each of the 3 joint development projects with the armed forces in Puding Military Camp in Daxi, Zhongyuan Military Camp in Zhongli, and Beiying Military Camp in Neili for a total o