Public Housing in Taiwan

Public housing in Taiwan (國宅) encompasses state-built housing initially sold or rented to military veteran, civil servant, and teaching families, with later waves designed to serve lower-income households. Its earliest concentrated form was the integrated housing (整建住宅) of 1960s Taipei, dense walk-up estates such as Nanjichang and Lanzhou built to clear riverside squatter settlements. A nationwide program followed under the National Housing Act (國民住宅條例) of 1975, but construction fell short of its targets. This program was halted in 1999 amid a glut of unsold units and lost its statutory basis when the act was repealed in 2013. A parallel strand rehoused disaster victims, from the 1959 flood relief community at Caotun to the post-earthquake estate at Kezikeng; many residential buildings of both kinds now await urban renewal.