The Executive Yuan yesterday proposed measures to help rein in real-estate prices, which have spiked due to “hot money” pouring into the local market.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), at a meeting in Taipei, instructed government officials to ensure that people could afford to buy a home.
Su said that housing is for residential purposes and should not become a commodity, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Li Meng-yen (李孟諺) told a news conference after the meeting.
Photo: Chen Yun, Taipei Times
The measures include stepping up reviews of so-called “pink form” transactions — used to place a reservation on a housing unit — by the Ministry of the Interior and local governments, the Executive Yuan said.
The ministry has also been tasked with amending the registration system of actual real-estate transaction prices to include individual units, instead of just general transactions, it said.
Measures to evade real-estate sales or purchasing taxes should also be investigated, it added.
The government is also considering adjusting loans for buyers of real-estate who do not intend to reside in the property, it said, adding that it was also urging banks to be cautious when considering loans requested by construction companies for new housing units.
If necessary, the central bank should intervene, while the Financial Supervisory Commission should also step up its reviews of real-estate loans to prevent speculation, the Executive Yuan said.
The government plans to build more social housing projects next year across 18 counties and cities, it said, adding that it would also increase the number of households eligible to benefit from subsidies to 120,000, up from 60,000.
That would be only the first wave of measures and should real-estate speculation continue, additional measures would be implemented, National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡璧如) said that the Executive Yuan’s measures were only short-term cures, calling on the government to amend the registration system of actual real-estate transaction prices and to impose a tax on vacant properties.
TPP Legislator Ann Kao (高虹安) said that her party has proposed a bill that would allow users of the system to see housing units being sold in real time, empower authorities to review and approve data, and provide a legal basis for fines.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS