William D.H. Li - Housing in Taiwan: Agency and Structure?

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HOUSING IN TAIWAN

For my Mother

Housing in Taiwan

Agency and Structure?

William D. H. Li

First published 1998 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright W. D. H. LI 1998

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 97076949

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-31539-6 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-0-429-45633-6 (ebk)

Contents

Guide

vii

The focus of this book is on the housing provision in Taiwan, to be more precisely, the pre-sale housing provision. By developing the concept of social relations in the housing provision, an explanation of the continuous existence of the pre-sale housing provision is given according to the relations of the agents in this structured housing provision. Through the social relations they form, agents are enabled and encouraged under the pre-sale system and this accounts for the enduring form of the pre-sale housing provision. Moreover, the pre-sale does not only benefit those agents involved but also has a contributive factor on the housing market.

The whole book is composed of eight Chapters. purposes because of this. Houses thus circulate as a commodity before their construction has even begun. It is this benefit, acquiring exchange value with a small amount of capital outlay that makes pre-sale popular among buyers.

. The political contradictions engendered by this crisis are investigated. The rising house prices of a housing boom (partially) caused by the pre-system and its speculation fuelled inflation generate, on the one hand, social protests on the part of those excluded from obtaining affordable housing, and on the other, a wider scale economic crisis. The government must respond to this, but is incapable of doing so effectively. The power of vested interests in the existing pre-sale system to influence parliament and government policy is demonstrated.

This book is mainly based on my doctoral thesis. Therefore, I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor M. Harloe and Dr. O. Sullivan, for their supervision and encouragement. Especially, I owe a great debt to Professor M. Harloe, without his strong support and his valuable comments on my study, the thesis would hardly be finished. I also like to thank Garry Potter for his excellent editing work which is a great help for the thesis to be published. I am very grateful for the support from the Sociology Department, Essex University. I also would like thank my examiners, Dr. A. Woodiwiss and Professor R. Forrest, for their encouraging comments on my work. Certainly, without those interviewees who kindly agreed to be interviewed, my work would be impossible. I would like to thank those interviewees who shared their knowledge with me.

William D. H. Li
August 1997

• EY: Executive Yuan(The Cabinet)
• HM: Housing Market
• IB: Interview with Banker
• IH: Interview with House Buyers
• IP: Interview with Promoter
• IS: Interview with Sales Agent
• KSSB: Kim Sun Si Bao(Commercial Times)
• LFYKB: Li Far Yuan Kun Bao(Parliament Report)
• LHB: Liang Hoo Bao(Daily United)
• LHWB: Liang Hoo Weng Bao
• Pin: (3.305 square meters)
• ZLWB: Zi Li Weng Bao
• ZYSB: Zi Yo Si Bao (Liberty Times)

The main aim of this Chapter is to further develop the concept of social relations contained in Ball and Harloe's broader concept of the 'structure of housing provision' (Ball et. al. 1988). It is my contention that their notion of social relations is underdeveloped and while they stress theoretically the necessity of understanding social relations in their 'structure of housing provision' concept (hereafter to be referred to as SHP), their substantive research does not adequately address the structural nature of social relations. My argument is that the social relations involved in the SHP should be understood in terms of agents' positions in production, circulation, and consumption of housing.

Ball and Harloe argue that consumption and production are equally important in coming to understand the actuality of housing provision and suggest that the two should not be treated in isolation (Ball and Harloe 1992). I agree but further argue that individual agents' activities and market changes cannot be explained without noting that the agents are located within a relatively enduring set of social relations. These social relations are not self evident but are embedded in the structural relationship of production and consumption in each individual form of housing provision. Agents involved with production will influence, and be influenced by, the social relations involved with the agents on the consumption and circulation side.

The structure of housing provision

Ball's SHP concept is intended to extend the scope of housing study beyond the limitations of policy centred and consumption based discussion (Ball 1988:29). He argues that it is necessary to take housing production into account because of the inadequacy of the very nature of private housing provision. This has been shown in his research on home ownership:

The essential points being made are that owner-occupation as a form of private market housing provision is not only failing to meet the basic aspirations of most people for decent, cheap housing but also is coming into conflict with the economic interests of most groups in society. The only beneficiaries of the current form of owner-occupation are those private interests who dominate it: landowners, building societies and speculation house builders (plus a few wealthy owner occupiers). (Ball 1983:12)

Housing issues, from his point of view, are not only about meeting housing needs but also must be understood as a kind of economic activity. The intention is to redirect the focus of housing study from a single-minded focus upon housing policies to an analysis of the entire process of housing provision. This demands that housing research should not simply be centred upon consumption.

It is obvious that the patterns of housing production will certainly influence consumption. Nor should distribution be seen as the sole important issue. Ball's approach while on one level structural (e.g. the SHP concept itself) also differs from the structural-Marxist tradition which has tended to focus on policy issues and their functional relationship with the economy. Ball, on the other hand, has a micro-approach. This is evident, for example, in his study of agents' activities within housing provision (Ball 1983).

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