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.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon this morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan between Friday and Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The storm, which as of 8am was still 1,100km southeast of southern Taiwan, is currently expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, the CWA said. Because of its rapid speed — 28kph as of 8am — a sea warning for the storm could be issued tonight, rather than tomorrow, as previously forecast, the CWA said. In terms of its impact, Usagi is to bring scattered or
An orange gas cloud that leaked from a waste management plant yesterday morning in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) was likely caused by acidic waste, authorities said, adding that it posed no immediate harm. The leak occurred at a plant in the district’s Environmental Science and Technology Park at about 7am, the Taoyuan Fire Department said. Firefighters discovered a cloud of unidentified orange gas leaking from a waste tank when they arrived on the site, it said, adding that they put on Level A chemical protection before entering the building. After finding there was no continuous leak, the department worked with the city’s Department
MESSAGE: The ministry said China and the Philippines are escalating regional tensions, and Taiwan should be included in dialogue mechanisms on an equal footing Taiwan has rejected renewed sovereignty claims over the South China Sea by the Philippines and China by reaffirming its sovereignty and rights under international law over the disputed area. “The Republic of China [ROC] enjoys all rights to island groups and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea in accordance with international law and maritime laws,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement yesterday. Other countries’ attempts to claim sovereignty over the South China Sea do not change the fact that the ROC holds sovereignty over the region, the ministry said. The MOFA statement came after
RSS