Friday 23 November 2012

The rise of social housing movement in Taiwan: dec 06

Unlike the developmental model in Singapore, public housing in Taiwan has been neglected overtime by the government in periods of rapid economic growth.  Most public housing units were built for and sold to the public servants and the people in the military sector instead of socially and economically disadvantageous people. Nowadays, public rental housing for disadvantaged people only occupies 0.09% of the total housing stock.  Therefore it could hardly play the role as social safety net when the Taiwan society experiences economic fluctuations.  At the same time, the skyrocketing price of housing has made purchasing a housing unit an unreachable dream for young people.  In addition, discrimination in the housing market also leads to the difficulties in housing searches for disadvantaged people such as elderly singletons, the disabled, and poor people.

 To address this situation, two years ago a movement urging the government to provide public rental housing emerged.  It could be viewed as a reincarnation of the housing movement in Taiwan from late 1980s to early 1990s.  However, this time the appeal of the movement has changed from government intervention in leveraging housing prices in the private market to more public housing or social housing for rental based on people’s housing rights.  This talk introduces the history of the two periods of housing movements in Taiwan, and gives an overview of the achievements as well as unachieved agenda of the recent movement for social housing in Taiwan.

For more information contact: fasrda@nus.edu.sg

Venue: FASS, NUS, at the AS7 Shaw Foundation Building, level 6, in room 06-42, the Research Division Seminar Room.