Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) yesterday announced a bill that could help reduce house prices.
If the bill gets approved it could reduce the ratio of common areas down to about 25 to 30 percent, Lin said.
Lin presented a proposal with two major changes regarding “housing public utilities” in which a building’s parking space would be redefined as “special purpose property,” while the elevators would not be included when calculating the floor area ratio.
Photo: Lee Wen-hsin, Taipei Times
Currently elevators are included in a building’s floor area ratio calculation when assessing the value of a property, Lin said.
“Some property developers have included access lanes to the parking lot as a part of housing public utilities. It results in unit owners who did not purchase a parking space having to share the cost of the parking lot. Those who have purchased a parking space also had to pay the access lane’s housing public utilities cost, which they say is unfair,” Lin said.
The ministry is proposing reclassifying parking lots as “special purpose property,” which would have its own independent property deed, making a clear distinction from the building’s “housing public utilities” for a more fair and reasonable assessment of the value, he said.
These changes would be made by amending provisions of the Condominium Administration Act (公寓大廈管理條例), he said.
The bill also aims to lower the ratio for “housing public utilities,” which can include the roof, balconies, first-floor walkways, basement emergency shelters, electricity equipment rooms, fire stairwells and parking spaces, he said.
“Currently there is an upper limit on floor area ratio and if there is leftover space, some developers use it as a space for building management and package it as a recreation room,” Lin said, which results in residential properties having a high public utilities ratio.
The Building Technical Regulations (建築技術規則) would be amended so that elevators are not included in floor area ratio, he said.
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