Yang Qiuxing 楊秋興 complained about all the empty storefronts in Kaohsiung. Legislator Chen Qiyu 陳啟昱, who apparently is on Chen Ju’s 陳菊 side, decided that this was unfair. He held a press conference and argued that Kaohsiung had no problem. Here is his evidence. If you look at vacancy rates, the worst three counties and cities are Taichung City (26.0% vacancies), Jilong City (23.8%), and Taoyuan County (23.2%). All three are KMT governed cities, and Kaohsiung City doesn’t even make it onto that list.
Well, ok. But what is Kaohsiung’s vacancy rate? If it is 23.0% and Kaohsiung ranks #4, is that really very good? Has it gone up more than the vacancy rate in other places? Should we compare the vacancy rates in urban areas like Kaohsiung City and rural areas like Hualian County? Are these vacancy rates for businesses, residential housing, everything, just 1st floors, or what?
The net effect of Chen Qiyu’s very weak defense is to make me believe that there really is something to the KMT’s (and now Yang’s) argument about the lousy real estate market in Kaohsiung.
Tags: Yang Qiuxing
Frozen Garlic 
May 3, 2010 at 6:17 pm |
Actually, all have about the same vacancy rates, 1/4. This makes me suspect a nation-wide structural problem: overbuilding due to massive government subsidies for land development. Land developers need only sell half of the average development to break even….