Department of Urban Development, Taipei City Government

In order to make the public understand housing safety information, Taipei City Government plans to promote a periodic housing safety inspection declaration system; it will improve the real estate market and ensure the safety of the public and their properties.
In a press on May 2nd, Chang Chin-e (Deputy Mayor Chang), Taipei deputy mayor, indicated that there is a periodic safety inspection for cars and a periodic health check for human beings, so there should be a periodic safety inspection for houses. Just like human beings, as the houses age, precise safety inspections should be carried out more often.
Deputy Mayor Chang said that more than 60% of houses in Taipei are over 30 years old and it’s hard to examine the condition of the houses based merely on their appearance; instead, professional inspections are required. Taipei City Government is planning to carry out periodic housing safety inspections for houses of certain ages, and the inspected houses will be classified into different safety levels so that the residents will know their housing condition. In addition, if the residents understand that their houses are not safe, then they will be more willing to carry out urban renewal.
As seen in Singapore, a creditable withholding tax system can be applied for old house refurbishment; it has been shown that this could be a great method for luring more citizens into having house safety inspections. Deputy Mayor Chang has discussed the idea with both Taipei City Construction Management Office and Mayor Hau Lung-bin (Mayor Hau); Mayor Hau is also very supportive of the idea. The periodic housing safety inspection will be carried out as a pilot experiment in its preliminary stage, and hopefully it will be legalized and eventually obtain support from the central government. As the implementation details, Taipei City Construction Management Office will be discussing them with the relevant professional teams.