Minglun's house is expensive and still full? "Sandwich Generation" and "Poverty Alleviation" Social Housing Pricing

It was mentioned before [1] that the rent of Minglun social housing is very expensive, but a week after the application was opened, 1,378 households [2] applied for the 354 households that could apply. Why is a social housing that is so expensive that public opinion slams it, but it is still in short supply?

There is a saying that "the rent of Minglun's house is not outrageous, as evidenced by the shortage of supply in the market. Even if many people criticize the rent as being too high, it is just a display of disgust and integrity." But is it really so?

[The reason for the short supply is that the housing and rental markets are not sound]

To discuss this issue, we need to zoom out a little and understand what our “housing system” looks like. Our housing system can be divided into three segments: "Housing Market", "Rental Market", and "Affordable Housing System (Social Housing)".

Under normal conditions, the government will guide and intervene through various policies [3] to make the housing market and rental market operate soundly. Even if the market is sound, the weak that cannot enter the market to obtain housing requires the state to provide a social safety net to undertake. This is the work of the affordable housing system headed by social housing.

This is also the reason why social housing should give priority to the disadvantaged, because these people are unable to find housing in the market, and the state has to find a way to intervene to help. If the social housing does not take care of them, where will they be allowed to survive?

However, if various unsound and distorted conditions appear in the housing purchase market and rental housing market, such as high housing prices, black market for rental housing, and poor housing quality, people who could have been looking for housing in the market will also flood into society in large numbers. in the residence.

This is the truth of the "in short supply" of Minglun's social housing: a large number of people who could not use social housing have been forced to crowd the housing.

This situation is not unique to Taiwan, Hong Kong is our predecessor. Due to its relatively inaction in the housing purchase market and rental market, a large number of people queue up for social housing. Even though social housing accounts for more than 30% of the housing stock, social housing is still in short supply. At present, social housing accounts for only 0.18% of the housing stock in Taiwan. The situation can be imagined.

[The sandwich generation who can't afford to rent and have to squeeze the social house]

Returning to Minglun social housing, the income threshold for social housing in Beishi is that the annual family income is less than 1.58 million and the average monthly income per person does not exceed 59,518 yuan. Among them, 35% are "special status protection households" with relatively weak social and economic conditions, and 65% are "general status households".

These "general-status households" who can earn up to nearly 60,000 a month are the "sandwich generation" in Taiwan's living predicament: they are not rich enough to buy houses that are getting more and more expensive, but not poor enough to live in them for the rest of their lives. Government subsidies, and in the rental market, they can't find housing of good enough quality and stability.

Therefore, this group has become the largest number of applications for Minglun social housing. The number of applications from general households accounts for 85.9% of the total number of applications, and the proportion of applications far exceeds that of special households that should be given priority to social housing; and this group has the lowest overall winning rate of social housing. Also calculated based on the current number of applicants, the winning rate of general households selecting a one-room type is only 16%, and the winning rate of the two-room type is only 21%.

For this group, the rent in Minglun is not cheap, but it is a new and existing house with decoration. In addition, there are MRT, parks, public trusts and other facilities nearby. More importantly, there is absolutely no "guarantee for at least a three-year lease term" in the current rental market. Of course, you should apply as soon as possible.

But does that mean Minglun's expensive rent is okay? In fact, it's not that Minglun's rent is okay, it's just because the housing buying and rental market is so bad, and these sandwich generations can just pay Minglun's rent, making Minglun a cost-effective choice.

[The rent of Minglun Community House is mixed living, or poverty alleviation? 】

Social housing in Taiwan adopts "single housing mixed housing", that is, both general households and special households are recruited in one social housing. This is the source of Ke Wenzhe's rationale for saying "I don't want the whole social house to be populated by poor people" and "the social house should be mixed and prosperous".

However, unlike ordinary households who have the ability to accept higher rents, the affordability of weak rents is more limited. Therefore, at present, the special or economically disadvantaged households in social housing are further subsidized by the government to reduce the rent.

As for the current rent for special households in Minglun Community House, can the economically disadvantaged be able to live in mixed housing?

In terms of the highest subsidy amount, that is, the rent of special households with the weakest economic ability and less than 1 times the minimum living expenses income standard (the average total household income is below 17,005 yuan per person per month), the cheapest one-bedroom type rent is 8,900 yuan, 21,900 for a two-bedroom and 36,000 for a three-bedroom.

Calculated based on the room type directly corresponding to the number of people who can work in the house (one room type, two people, and so on), the "rent-to-income ratio" (the ratio of rent to income) is 52.3%, 64.4%, and 70.5%. That is to say, it is in the best condition and claims to be the most cost-effective one-room type. Even the weak ones still have to pay more than half of their monthly income as rent, far exceeding the "30% of income as rent" set by international standards.

Moreover, while the price of Minglun social house is expensive, the subsidy amount for the most vulnerable groups is also the lowest compared with other social houses. Since the price of a three-bedroom type is much higher than that of a one-bedroom type, the subsidy amount given to a three-bedroom type of housing in North City in the past is much higher than that of a one-bedroom type. Usually, the subsidy for the one-bedroom type is about 4,000, and the three-bedroom type is about 7,000.

However, this difference principle is not reflected in the rent of Minglun Community House this time. The one-bedroom type is subsidized by 4,000, while the three-bedroom type is only subsidized by 4,500, resulting in a substantial increase in the rent-to-income ratio of the three-bedroom type.

I don't know why the Minglun community house with the most expensive rent has the least rental subsidy for special households by the Taipei City Government. But social housing rents are so expensive that "mixed living and co-prosperity" is not only impossible to achieve, but is likely to become a new means of poverty alleviation.

In my last article about Minglun’s house, although it was to explain that the house was expensive, I didn’t really criticize the Beishi government too much. One is that social housing is expensive, and part of it is structural commonality. Second, I think it is more encouraging to have a social housing built than not to have one. So even if there are some deficiencies, I try to be gentle and obscure, and I will improve it next time.

But recently I saw that Mayor Ke was unwilling to be lonely, and kept jumping out and saying "cohabitation and co-prosperity", then I think it is time to make a good calculation for everyone to see if the weak are really enough to live in "cohabitation and co-prosperity". . The result is that the above calculation shows everyone that it is not at all "not all poor people in social housing", but "no poor people can afford to live in social housing."

I really suggest that Mayor Ke should change it if he has, and praise him if he doesn't.

[1] https://reurl.cc/q8WKA3

[2] The data comes from the Taipei Social Housing Rental Network. Capture time: 2020/12/03 18:00

[3] Residential houses have both the properties of "consumer goods (use value)" and "capital goods (exchange value)". Therefore, all countries have more or less related policies to intervene in the housing market, rather than treating them as commodities.