Why are more than 860,000 Taiwan homes empty?
Why are more than 860,000 Taiwan homes empty?
Alarming numbers of unoccupied residences
There were 862,600 empty properties at the end of 2015 in Taiwan, the country’s Ministry of Interior said last week.
Of the unoccupied, 118,713 were in New Taipei, and 63,890 in Taipei, according to statistics assembled by MoI real estate information platform
New Taipei, also known as Xinbei, is a special municipality and the most populous city in Taiwan.
This accounts for a non-so-paltry 10.35 percent of the total, and shows that over 20 percent of properties in greater Taipei were unoccupied, reports Focus Taiwan.
More: Why soaring property prices in Taipei are a cause for concern
Across the country, the highest rate of unoccupancy was in the northeastern city of Yilan, where 15.98 percent (28,000) of properties sat unused.
New Taipei and Kaohsiung Had the highest number of empty residences – 118,713 and 111,101 respectively.
Real estate in Taipei is known to be expensive. Taiwanese media have previously stated that, based on average income, the average household would have to “neither eat nor drink” for over fifteen years in order to buy a property.
Read next: Taipei rising: will new tax reforms signal a real estate comeback?
Source: Property Report