Who benefits from rent subsidy 1》The elderly and married families have high demand, accounting for more than 40% of the national share

Next year, rent subsidies will return to the central and local joint payment mechanism. Therefore, this year is the last year for the 30 billion central government’s expanded rent subsidy project to be fully subsidized by the central government. The deadline is the end of this year. According to the latest housing information statistics annual report released by the Ministry of Interior in 2025, the total number of households applying for the first category of vulnerable households and married families last year was more than 382,800 households across the country, accounting for more than 35% of the total households applying nationwide.

Huang Shuwei, director of Colliers International Real Estate Owner Representative Services Department, said that rent subsidies are not only a part of housing policy, but also a pillar of social welfare policy. To evaluate the effectiveness of the policy, we cannot only look at the number of subsidized households and budget size, but also take into account core principles such as choice, fairness, sustainability and accessibility.

Further observing the breakdown of the first category of applicant households, the top two categories are those with more than 2 minor children and those over 65 years old, with approximately 81,700 households and 75,100 households respectively, ranking first. The ratio of the total number of households applying for this category is nearly 21.34% and 19.62% respectively. That is to say, the number of households applying for marriage and childbearing families plus those over 65 years old totals 156,800 households, accounting for more than 40% of the first-tier households.

Real estate industry players point out that the current demographic and national security crisis in Taiwan is the ultra-old age and the declining number of children, which has led to an increasing number of single and lonely elderly people. In addition, the burden of housing costs continues to increase. Therefore, it can be observed that among the rental population, married families with children and elderly people have a relatively urgent need for rent subsidies, which can at least directly reduce part of the rent burden.

Zeng Jingde, project manager of Xinyi Housing Real Estate Enterprise Research Office, said that rent subsidies can reduce the burden of living costs for renters who do not own their own houses. For renters, they can save some rent every month, especially for married families with large monthly expenses. Rent subsidies can further help married families take a breather.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Interior’s Housing Information Statistics Annual Report, nearly 1.085 million households applied for rent subsidies nationwide last year, the highest number of applications in history. The final number of approved households exceeded 964,200 households, with an approval rate of about 89%. Further observation of the approval rates in six cities showed that all of them exceeded 88%. Taipei City, Taoyuan City, and Tainan City had higher approval rates, with all three cities exceeding 90%.

He Shichang, CEO of Xinchuan Real Estate Think Tank, said that since the implementation of rental subsidies for many years, it has become an important tool for most renters to reduce their housing burden, and has also indirectly promoted the development of the rental service industry. Moreover, rent subsidies have become so widespread that they cannot be stopped. The sudden interruption will have a huge impact on renters. It is expected that the subsidy will be extended after it expires. However, the biggest controversy in the future may be how the central and local governments share the cost ratio.