According to Taiwan's low-use residential data released by the Ministry of the Interior, looking at the low-use residential ratios of different total area ranges in various counties and cities across the country, in the second half of 2025, the "less than 20 square meters" ratio was the highest in the country at 16.77%. Among the six cities, Tainan City had the highest ratio of 24.09% and the ratio was greater than 20%. Taipei City was the lowest with only 10.75%, followed by New Taipei City at 11.96%. The other municipalities were also less than 20%.
According to the "low-energy-consuming residences" released by the Ministry of Interior with a monthly electricity consumption of less than 60 kilowatt-hours, which is also regarded as the regional vacancy rate, statistics show that the ratio of low-energy-consuming residences in the six cities shows "the smaller the square footage, the higher the rate of low-energy-consuming residences."
Taking Tainan City as an example, 24.09% are below 20 square meters, 13.26% are below 20 to 40 square meters, 8.22% are below 60 square meters, and only 5.89% are between 60 square meters and below 100 square meters. This trend is also seen in other counties and cities. The larger the square footage, the lower the ratio of low-power residential buildings.
It is worth noting that the low-use situation of small-square-meter residential buildings also shows obvious regional differences. Looking at residential buildings below 20 square meters, the rate of low-power residential buildings in Tainan City reaches 24.09%, which is more than twice that of Taipei City (10.75%). This shows that for the same small-square-foot residential buildings, there are still obvious differences in the living and usage conditions in different cities.
However, compared with the previous period, the proportion of low-use residential buildings in each area range has decreased, with the proportion of low-use residential buildings "less than 20 square meters" decreasing the most.
Ye Lingqi, general manager of the business of Yongqing Real Estate Group, said that small housing is already a market trend. In the past 10 years, the average transaction square footage of existing homes in Taiwan has shrunk by about 5 square meters, and in 2025, the proportion of residential transactions under 30 square meters has reached 41%, which is the same as the proportion of one-person households, reflecting the gradual shift in market demand to small-square-foot homes.
Among the six cities, the proportion of low-occupancy housing "below 20 square meters" decreased by more than 3 percentage points in Taoyuan City and Kaohsiung City, and about 2 percentage points in the other four cities. Among the non-six capital municipalities, only Penghu County increased by less than 1 percentage point and Lianjiang County increased by more than 1 percentage point. The remaining counties and cities all decreased, with Yilan County decreasing by more than 5 percentage points, followed by Keelung City by more than 1 percentage point. 3 percentage points, Miaoli County, Yunlin County, Pingtung County, Hualien County, Hsinchu City, and Kinmen County decreased by more than 2 percentage points.
Compared with the same period last year, the proportion of low-use residential buildings in various area ranges increased by more than 40 square meters, and decreased by less than 40 square meters. Among them, "below 20 square meters" had the largest decrease of 1.39 percentage points, followed by "more than 20 square meters and less than 40 square meters."
Looking at various counties and cities, Penghu County had the largest increase of 3.58 percentage points for "less than 20 pings". Tainan City, Nantou County, Taitung County, Hsinchu City, and Chiayi City had an increase of less than 1 percentage point. The remaining counties and cities all decreased, with Lianjiang County having the largest decrease of 4.44 percentage points, followed by Yilan County with a decrease of 2.78 percentage points, and Kaohsiung City again with a decrease of 2.71 percentage points.
As for "more than 20 square meters to less than 40 square meters", Penghu County increased by 2.81 percentage points and Chiayi County increased by 2.04 percentage points. Tainan City, Miaoli County, Yunlin County, Pingtung County, and Chiayi City increased by less than 1 percentage point. The remaining counties and cities all decreased, with Lianjiang County decreasing by 9.15 percentage points the most, followed by Hsinchu County by 1.87 percentage points, and Kinmen County decreasing by 1.35 percentage points. percentage points.
