On December 30, 2020, the Legislative Yuan completed the amendment of the “Equalization of Land Rights Act,” the “Land Administration Agent Act,” and the “Real Estate Broking Management Act.” Such amendments have pushed the “Actual Price Registration System” enforced on August 1, 2012, into the new era of “version 2.0” and added an administration system for the pre-order slips of the presale housing. The following is a summary of the amendments:

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1. Full disclosure of closing information

  Prior to the amendment, Paragraph 4 of Article 47 of the “Equalization of Land Rights Act” and Article 24-1 of the “Real Estate Broking Management Act” provided that when the actual price registration system disclose land and building transaction information, it should conceal the personal information and provide a “sectionalized” and “anonymized” format for public’s inquiry. In the past, the actual price registration system used 30 house numbers as one inquiry unit for users to look up the approximate land or building transaction price for a certain section of a street. This amendment removes the disclosure restriction of “sectionalization” and “anonymization.” In the future, land and building transaction information shall fully be disclosed, including house numbers and land parcel numbers. Moreover, the restrictions placed on historical transaction information uploaded prior to this amendment will also be lifted for public’s inquiry.  

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2. Giving the competent authority the right to examine

  Paragraph 6 of Article 47 of the newly amended “Equalization of Land Rights Act” gives local competent authorities the right to inquire, obtain related documents or request explanations from the parties of the real estate transaction or their land administration agents or real estate agents with respect to the information of the actual price registration. If the competent authorities suspect there is misrepresentation of actual price registration information, they may inquire and obtain the documents related to the price from financial institutions or related institutions. The parties and institutions receiving such examinations shall not circumvent, obstruct, or refuse.

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3. Prompt declaration of presale housing transaction

  When the legislators amended regulations related to the “Equalization of Land Rights Act” on July 31, 2019, they already established the principle of “promptness” of declaration, providing that the parties of a real estate transaction shall attach a filing for the declaration of transaction information when they apply for a real estate sale and transfer registration. However, they did not make “presale housing” subject to such a declaration.

  This amendment added Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 47-3 of the “Equalization of Land Rights Act” to expressly provide that those selling presale housing on their own shall submit the following information in writing to the competent authorities for their records prior to the sale, which including the land location, building name, place of sale, sale period, number of units, and the standard contract of the presale housing, and file a declaration of transaction information within 30 days of entering into a purchase and sale contract. If the housing is sold through a broker, pursuant to Paragraph 2 of Article 24-1 of the Real Estate Broking Management Act, the broker shall submit relevant documents of consigned contract to the competent authorities for their records within 30 days of the entering into, change, or termination of the consigned contract, and shall file a declaration of transaction information with the competent authorities within 30 days of entering into a purchase and sale contract.

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4. Adding an administration system for “red slips”

  The so-called “Red Slips” is the pre-order slips of the presale housing . A buyer of a presale housing pays the deposit and receives a pre-order slip who in turn sells the slip to a third party, then such a transaction is called “a red slip transaction.” This amendment adds Paragraph 5 of Article 47-3 of the “Equalization of Land Rights Act” to provide: “In the sale of a presale housing or a sale agency commissioned to sell such housing, a deposit or the like received shall be confirmed with a written contract stating the premises sold and the price, and shall not have the provision to reserve the right to sell or the right to enter into purchase and sale contract, or other conditions unfavorable to the buyer.” And Paragraph 6 of the same provides, “The written contract of the preceding paragraph shall not be resold to a third party.” Such amendments add an administration system for red slips of presale housing and prohibits the sale of red slips. Violators shall be subject to a fine of no less than NTD150,000 and no more than NTD1,000,000.  

(Author: Hsin-Yang Lee, Intern Attorney)

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