The premier made the policy announcement in response to questions raised by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang, who pointed out that surging real estate prices top the general public’s list of complaints.
Skyrocketing housing prices have resulted in net outflows of population from Taipei City 13 months in a row, according to newspaper reports March 2. Selling public properties at the moment is adding fuel to the fire, Wu said.
People in Taiwan have already found soaring housing prices unbearable, Wu noted. If the government continues to put state-owned properties on sale, high auction prices will contribute to real estate speculation, even if these sales account for only a small proportion of all real property transactions, he added.
Following the premier’s instructions, Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der said effective immediately, all bidding public land in Taipei City would be put on hold, regardless of which district the land is located in.
The National Property Administration also announced it would call off its auction of 13 plots of public land in Taipei City and Taipei County, which was originally scheduled on March 11.
But Lee added later that the ban would apply only to Taipei City. The auction prices of public land in Taipei County have been reasonable so far, he said.
Sales of public land in Taipei City have been a cash machine for the NPA, which originally anticipated NT$38 billion (US$1.19 billion) in revenues from these activities this year. (SFC-HZW)