New Prospects for Social Rental Housing in Taiwan: The Role of Housing Affordability Crises and the Housing Movement

Housing speculation has been a major housing problem and hence a major concern of social movements in Taiwan since the mid-1980s. Although the government has implemented various schemes to slow down housing prices, past policies have not sought to change the fundamental structure of the housing system or its speculative tendencies. Since the late-1980s, a civil movement has been building up behind the issue of affordable rented housing, resisting the tendency towards intensified housing commodification that has served the interests of developers at the expense of the socially vulnerable. In late 2010, the Taiwanese social rented housing movement successfully pressed the passage of a policy supporting five social housing projects, as well as a luxury tax policy on housing. It has not, however, managed to change the more significant land tax system and the strong coalition between the state and private developers. There remain many struggles ahead in terms of reversing the trend toward privatisation and in advancing the cause of socialising housing. This paper assesses the struggle and recent successes of the Taiwanese housing movements in context of the speculative market booms that have characterised the housing sector for nearly three decades.