More and more applications to rebuild ageing housing are being submitted in Taipei, but they are piling up at city hall faster than they can be reviewed — bad news for residents of old buildings waiting for redevelopment.

• Since taking office, Chiang Wan-an has promoted his "Eight Arrows of Urban Renewal" policy, and submissions over the past three years have been 2.4 times those of the previous eight years, the highest among the six special municipalities.
• With cases surging, the Urban Renewal Office is clearly short of staff and ranked too low in the bureaucracy, so applications stall once they reach city hall.
• Some cases submitted for approval as far back as 2015 are still going through review meetings, and some of the original owners have since died.
• In one case, no further meeting was held for a year and a half after the last review meeting, and the city government did not follow up on progress on its own initiative.
• Councillor Yu Shu-hui called for the establishment of an Urban Renewal Bureau to be included in his campaign pledges for the next election, and Chiang Wan-an said it could be taken into consideration in future planning.

Outlook: Urban renewal will be a hot issue in this year's Taipei mayoral race, and discussion of setting up an Urban Renewal Bureau is expected to intensify further.