New Taipei City Special Report 4/4: Latest Regulations and Review Trends for Studio Apartment Renovations in New Taipei City
How do studio apartment renovations trigger New Taipei City’s regulations? A review revolution is changing the rules for subdivided rental units. A landlord excitedly tells a contractor, “Landlord, this 30-ping apartment, help me divide it into 5 studio units with good soundproofing using brick walls!” He thought it was just an “interior renovation” cost, and as long as he worked discreetly and wasn’t reported, he could wait for rental income. He didn’t even realize his neighbor would be the next to report him.
However, in nearby Banqiao, another savvy prospective landlord consulted an architect before signing the purchase agreement. The architect sternly advised him, “This building is on the 6th floor and above; dividing it into studio units falls under ‘general interior renovation’ and requires architect certification. Furthermore, adding 5 bathrooms, if it involves ‘drilling through the floor slab,’ may require ‘consent from the floor directly below.’ We must use ‘lightweight partitions’ and ensure hallway widths exceed 120 cm, otherwise, it will 100% not pass.”
The stark contrast between these two scenarios brutally reveals the harsh reality of “studio apartment renovations in New Taipei City.” Following the fatal tragedy of the Zhonghe fire in mid-2017, the New Taipei City government has elevated its review of “subdivided rentals” from mere “interior renovation” to the highest alert level for “public safety.” This article will delve into New Taipei City’s latest regulations and review trends, illustrating how this revolution has completely ended the old era of “privately subdivided studio apartments.”
The allure of “one more room, one more rent payment” has driven landlords to pursue this path relentlessly. However, the flaw in the old model was building “profit” on the grave of “safety.” Traditional “brick partitions” and “train-car-style” layouts are the two main targets of New Taipei City’s strict regulations.
Landlords in the old model favored “brick walls” for their superior soundproofing and tenant satisfaction. But they overlooked that many old apartments in New Taipei City, dating back 30 to 40 years, were not designed with floor slabs capable of supporting the “additional” weight of four or five brick walls. A single brick wall (including plaster) can weigh over 200 kilograms per square meter. Dividing an apartment into five studios is akin to placing a large truck inside the building. Several cases in Zhonghe and Yonghe have occurred where upstairs neighbors illegally used brick walls to create studios, leading to “structural cracks” and “floor slab subsidence” in the downstairs ceilings. This resulted in costly lawsuits and mandatory demolition.
The second characteristic of the old model was the “maximization” of room count. To cram in more rooms, landlords would design narrow, elongated corridors in a “train-car style,” with rooms lining both sides, and only a single exit at the end (or sometimes no exit at all). In the event of a fire, such a design becomes a death trap with “zero chance of survival.” The arson tragedy in Zhonghe in 2017 was precisely due to the flammable materials used in illegal partitions and the narrow, blocked escape routes, which caused smoke and heat to spread rapidly, leaving tenants with nowhere to flee. This incident became the turning point for the New Taipei City government to “iron-handedly” rectify studio apartment renovations.
After the Zhonghe fire, the New Taipei City government completely rewrote the rules for “studio apartment renovations.” The core of the review trend is to elevate it from a mere “renovation act” to a “high-risk public safety behavior,” strictly controlled through “application categories” and “usage determination.”
This is the first “iron rule” landlords must know. As mentioned in previous articles, New Taipei City’s “simple interior renovation” has a “red line”: it “shall not alter partition walls.” The essence of “dividing into studio apartments” is precisely the “addition of several partition walls.”
This means:
Any attempt to sneak through using “simple interior renovation” or to proceed with “no permit” construction will result in an order to “stop work” and a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000 if reported.
To address the challenge of “structural load-bearing,” New Taipei City’s review trends have “effectively” banned brick walls for studio apartment renovations. Architects must consider structural safety during certification, thus mandating landlords to switch to “lightweight partition” construction methods. Key materials for review include:
The review trend requires you to clearly indicate the “detailed construction of partition walls” on your drawings and, upon completion inspection, provide “factory certificates of fire-resistance grade 1” for all boards and framing materials.
These are the two major hurdles that have tightened New Taipei City’s review process in recent years. If your studio apartment division is “excessive” (e.g., dividing one floor into 6 or more units, each with independent electricity meters and door numbers), the Public Works Department may not simply classify it as “interior renovation” but will upgrade it to a “change in the number of units.” This falls under the scope of “changing the building use permit,” and the review difficulty and cost will increase exponentially.
Furthermore, New Taipei City has adopted the strict standards of Taipei City. If you “add bathrooms” and the construction involves “chipping the floor slab” (to embed drainpipes and sewage pipes), you must submit a “consent form from all owners of the floor directly below.” Adding 4 or 5 bathrooms without chipping the floor slab is almost an impossible task, making “downstairs neighbors” the key veto power for your ability to legally subdivide.
To legally renovate studio apartments in New Taipei City, landlords must shift their mindset from “pursuing room count” to “complying with regulations.” Your architect must achieve perfection in these four key indicators to have a chance of passing.
This is a “hard-learned lesson” indicator after the Zhonghe fire. Reviewers will use rulers to precisely measure the “corridor widths” on your drawings. According to the “Architectural Technical Regulations,” corridor widths have strict limitations:
Any design attempting to reduce corridor width to gain interior space will be “immediately rejected.”
All “partition walls” and “corridor walls” for studio apartments must have a “fire resistance rating of one hour or more.” Simultaneously, the “room doors” of each studio must be “fire doors” (f60A or f60B) with a “one-hour fire resistance rating” and “heat-insulating properties,” accompanied by “factory certificates.” The cost of these fire doors is a crucial expense that landlords in the old model often overlook.
Here is our compiled “Legal SOP Dashboard for New Taipei City Studio Apartment Renovations”:
The regulations and review trends for “studio apartment renovations” in New Taipei City have clearly signaled the end of the “private studio apartment” era. This revolution is a “fire safety wall” established by the New Taipei City government after paying a heavy price in public safety. As a landlord, you face a choice: Will you continue to use the old model, becoming an “illegal landlord” operating on the fringes of the law, putting tenants at high risk, constantly worrying about being reported, demolished, or even facing criminal charges? Or will you choose to face the regulations, invest the necessary costs, commission professional architects, and create a “legal,” “safe,” and “peace of mind” rental property, becoming a responsible “professional landlord”? Ultimately, this is a choice between “short-term high profits” and “long-term responsibility.”
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