Introduction

In the West, the discussion about gentrification to date has mainly referred to how certain social classes were replaced by others due to changes in the spatial economy and public policies (see Lees et al, 2008). Increasingly, it has focused on how private developers partner with government bodies, especially in the provision of urban infrastructures, to mobilise the process of gentrification. The mechanisms that Western governments employ in redevelopment mostly rely on financial, planning and legal tools. By way of comparison, to date, the role of public lands and their influence on gentrification has been much less significant. In Taipei, however, processes of gentrification seem to be different. Due to the legacy of Japanese colonial rule and the authoritarian regime after the Second World War, central and local governments own more than 40% of the urban land in Taipei. Because a high percentage of the public lands are located in the city center and in strategic areas, in recent decades, the development of public lands has played an important role in the gentrification of Taipei.

This chapter reviews the development of public lands in Taipei and its impact on the urban gentrification of the city center. I focus on two issues. The first is the commodification of public housing in the 1980s. From the mid-1970s to the 1980s, central government built a block of public housing in the city center that was not for permanent rental and could be sold after a certain number of years, normally five years. Due to the colonial legacy and the later role of public lands in the city, these public housing developments in central Taipei were mostly for military dependants and the rising new middle class. The national and local governments collaborated in the provision of military lands with good planning and design, sound infrastructures, and good locations; as such, many public housing units became an upscale commodity in the real estate market and pushed up housing prices in the surrounding areas. Second, over the past decade, the relationship between public housing and gentrification in Taipei has ascended to another stage.