New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, on Friday outlined his housing policy, with a focus on making it easier for young people to buy a home.
At a news conference in Taipei, Hou said that under his policy young people would be able to take out a maximum mortgage of NT$15 million (US$478,103) and not have to make a down payment when buying a home.
It is generally necessary to make a down payment when buying a home, as banks do not lend the full amount of purchase cost.
Photo: CNA
To be eligible for Hou’s program, applicants would have to be first-time buyers, younger than 40, have good credit and make an annual income under a fixed amount, which has not yet been announced.
The applicants would be restricted from reselling the home for 10 years to avoid flipping the property, and an applicant would only be permitted to take out the maximum mortgage once.
For the first five years after purchasing a home, new home buyers would only have to pay the interest on their mortgage, 0.5 percent of which would be subsidized by the government and financial institutions, Hou said.
After the first five years, the government and financial institutions would cover 0.125 percent of the interest payments, but the homeowners would also have to start paying down the mortgage, he said.
Under the policy, the buyer of a NT$15 million home would pay about NT$19,000 per month for the first five years, he said.
It should not be difficult for young people to afford a home, he said, urging financial institutions to cooperate with the government and lend money to young people with good credit without restrictions.
Former vice premier Woody Duh (杜紫軍), a member of Hou’s campaign team, said that in the event the homeowner is unable to pay back their mortgage, the government would assume responsibility for the loan.
Justin Sun (孫振義), a professor of land economics at National Chengchi University, said that Hou’s proposed policy gives young people a chance to afford their own homes, but the government needs to come up with risk control measures for the policy.
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