Department of Urban Development, Taipei City Government

For more than seven years, the Taipei City Government has spared no effort to promote the building of social housing units to meet the needs of its citizens. To this end, the city government has organized 51 public hearings and explanatory meetings since 2016 to collect public opinion and strengthen communication prior to construction. At present, a total of 6,075 units in 30 social housing projects have been completed, a total of 8,036 units in 24 projects are under construction and a total of 2,532 units in 11 construction projects are in planning and tendering. A total of 3,786 units in 54 projects were returned to the land owners.

Although construction on social housing units has been slow since 2020 due to the lingering effects of COVID-19, including shortages of both labor and building materials, the tendering of 1,105 units at 5 social housing sites was completed, with construction underway. 720 units in four other projects have been planned and are currently pending tendering online. This shows that Taipei City Government’s determination in social housing projects has not slowed down.

The City's land resources are limited and facilitating social housing projects requires a large amount of land and funding. Currently, 86% of the land among all social housing projects is owned by the city, and 96% of the funding is provided by the city government. NT$4.5 billion is funded by the central government, accounting for only 4% of the total.

As a local government with the largest number of social housing projects in Taiwan, the Taipei City Government has repeatedly shared its experience with the Ministry of the Interior and other counties/cities to help the central government and other counties/cities promote social housing. To speed up the promotion of social housing projects, the city government hopes that the central government will take a proactive approach in assisting local governments in acquiring state-owned land resources free of charge to remove land acquisition obstacles, while also helping the local government solve the labor shortage dilemma. In this way, quality social homes can be built more quickly to meet the needs of more citizens.