Taipei's push to rebuild aging buildings is working almost too well — applications are surging, but they are now stuck inside city hall, which is bad news for owners of old homes waiting years for approval.

• Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an's urban renewal incentives lifted filings to more than double the previous eight years' pace, the highest among Taiwan's six big cities.
• The bottleneck has moved to the city itself: the renewal office is understaffed and ranks too low to handle the load.
• City councilor Yu Shu-hui wants a full urban renewal bureau created and made a campaign pledge for the next term; Chiang said it could be folded into future planning.
• One case filed in 2015 is still in review, with neighbors dying before it finished — and one project sat 18 months without a single meeting.
• Rules already allow the city to cancel contracts with developers who stall, but that power has gone essentially unused.

Outlook: Urban renewal is set to be a central issue in this year's Taipei election, with pressure building on Chiang to upgrade the agency handling it.