OURs - The Organization of Urban Re-s
OURs 都市改革組織

Labor Rights and Economic Security
Have you heard of social housing, cooperative housing, the housing register for actual housing prices, or unified real estate tax? These are all accomplishments of long-term advocacy by OURs! As the first major NGO for urban planning policy, we are deeply concerned with equality in the price of urban space, with residency being another important aim. We hope to realize housing justice, and a fair city is something that we have to bring about ourselves!

OURs was formed during the Snails Without Shells Movement and has sought to reform urban space up until today. OURs brings together a group of people whose view of the urban space draws on experts, in the hope that through our collective efforts, we can implement changes, as well as provide oversight over urban development with regards to equality and realizing social welfare. Through research investigations, OURs makes policy recommendations, carrying out various lobbying activities, while also carrying out educational initiatives directed at society as a whole. We draw on the experiences of other countries, in connecting reformers of urban renewal internationally, to allow for more possibilities in Taiwan's urban spaces.

Starting in 2010, because of Taiwan's high real-estate prices and the government failing to realize housing policy, OURs united a number of civil society groups to form the "Social Housing Promotion Alliance." In 2014, the "Nest Movement" began a new wave of social housing movement, leading to a change in the government's housing policy. This includes social housing, the housing register for actual housing prices, or unified real estate tax.

In 2018, OURs sought to introduce the concept of cooperative housing to Taiwan, publishing a number of books on this. In 2022, OURs implemented the New Taipei Yuanhe Collaborative Housing Project, establishing Taiwan's first social housing complex autonomously run by young people, as a third way beyond buying or renting homes. OURs was formed in the hopes of pushing the government to implement progressive housing policy, to allow people to benefit from the development of the city, to have a better way of life. In a market with unsound renting and buying of houses, OURs emphasizes generational justice and consumer rights as means of implementing housing justice. OURs is a force for change that Taiwan cannot lack.

Record book
2010 -
Social Housing Promotion Alliance established

Connecting different NGOs to promote the planning and implementation of social housing and to make social housing an important aim of both central and local governments.

2011 -
Housing Act (Promulgated in 2011, amended in 2016 and 2020)

To give robust social housing policy a sound legal mechanism

2011 -
Real Estate Register Act (Entered law in 2011, amended in 2020)

To reveal information on real estate exchanges, to realize an orderly real estate market

2015 -
Unified Real Estate Tax (Established in 2015, amended in 2021)

Impose heavier taxes on short-term buying, to prevent real estate speculation

2017 -
Rental Housing Market Development and Regulation Act (Promulgated in 2017, amended in 2023)

Cultivate the development of the rental market, manage renting behavior

2022 -
Yuanhe Collaborative Housing Project (collaboration with the social housing in New Taipei City)

To have an experimental model for cooperative housing, as a self-managed space for young people

Associated Events
In 2018, we visited co-housing in Germany and exchanged ideas with the responsible organizations.
Advocacy for the Amendment of the Housing Act in 2016
2014 Nest Movement
1989 Shell-less Snail Movement
2023 Yuanhe Collaborative Housing Project (collaboration with the Yuanhe Youth Rental House, Tucheng)