It's been almost twelve years since Taiwan implemented its urban regeneration policies. In that time, the policies have done little to help regenerate cities or improve urban living environment. Instead, they have inadvertently caused real estate price inflation, especially in older, low-rise buildings in the cities. This is an unreasonable state of affairs that the government must work to resolve. The Urban Redevelopment Act passed in 1998. In Taipei City, 322 projects have been submitted for approval, but only 76 have been approved. In Taipei County, only 96 projects out of 330 submitted have been approved. Each approved project took an average of 7.7 years to complete. Why has the Urban Redevelopment Act been so ineffective? The first hurdle is the difficulty in reaching consensus among property owners. According to the act, the minimum area required for urban regeneration is 1,000 square meters. Since property is owned in such small parcels in the cities, dozens of owners might have to give their approval for a redevelopment project to go ahead. Secondly, there are frequently conflicts of interest between the property owners and the developers. Owners usually expect to get larger and better units after the project, putting them against developers who want to enjoy higher profits. Thirdly, the urban renewal incentives do not meet the existing owners' needs. Under current urban redevelopment laws, the owners might actually get smaller housing units after the conversion. Fourth, the appraisal process is unfair to property owners. Under current regulation, the developers gets to decide the appraisal date, which is used for determining the value of the property. Developers also have the right to select which property appraisers to use. With housing prices changing so fast and the review period for the project so long, this is often a cause of dispute between owners and developers. To resolve these issues, it is necessary to revise the Urban Redevelopment Act and related regulation. The government should raise the incentive for land owners, correct the bias towards developers, and most importantly, raise the legal floor area ratio. This will increase the amount of housing available and drive down the overheated real estate market. (By Fanny Liu)/ao 