Taiwan Rent Subsidy: Can Foreigners Apply?
Taiwan's rent subsidy pays part of your monthly rent into your own bank account. It is run by the Ministry of the Interior's Land Management Agency as the NT$30 billion Expanded Rent Subsidy Program, and since that expansion there is one scheme — not a separate one for young renters, married couples or new residents.
Two things people get wrong before they even check the amount: they assume it is a limited-quota lottery, and they assume they have to move their household registration. Neither is true.
Can you apply on an ARC?
Household members are identified by the unified ID number (統一證號) on the ARC, so not holding a Taiwanese national ID card does not by itself stop you.
The routes that are clearly covered are:
- The foreign spouse of a Taiwanese national, and
- A widowed or divorced foreign parent raising a minor child who holds Taiwanese nationality
Either way you apply with your ARC plus household registration or kinship documents proving the relationship.
If you hold a work or student ARC and neither route describes you, your eligibility is not automatic and we will not tell you it is. Run the official eligibility check before you file, or call 1990 (24 hours, Chinese/English/Japanese) and ask about your own case.
Social housing is the opposite: there the applicant must hold ROC nationality. The two schemes have completely different rules, so being turned away from one says nothing about the other.
The three conditions everyone has to meet
- No home of your own. Not you, your spouse, your minor children, or anyone under your guardianship — nobody counted in your household owns residential property in Taiwan.
- Income under the ceiling. Average monthly income per household member must be at or below three times the local minimum living cost. Under the 2026 youth marriage-and-childbirth project the ceiling is relaxed to 3.5 times. Only you, your spouse, your minor children and your wards are counted — not your parents, not your siblings.
- A real tenancy. You are actually renting, and you hold the lease.
How much: level first, then multiplier
The monthly base is set by your household level and by the township or district the rental is in. Taipei City is the one city that maps to a single district group, so it is quoted here as an anchor:
| Level | Who it covers | Taipei City base |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 2+ household members including a low-income household, or 3+ including a lower-middle-income household | NT$8,000 |
| Level 2 | Anyone who is neither Level 1 nor Level 3 | NT$5,000 |
| Level 3 | Single-person household, under 40, not economically or socially disadvantaged | NT$3,000 |
Then a multiplier applies:
| Situation | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Single, adult and under 40 | 1.2× |
| Newlywed household (married within the last 2 years) | 1.3–1.5× |
| Raising minor children | 1.4–3× (rising with the number of children) |
| Economically disadvantaged | 1.4× |
| Socially disadvantaged | 1.2× |
From January 2026 the marriage-and-childbirth top-up works like this: +50% if your marriage was registered within the last 2 years, and +50% for each additional minor child — +100% for a child born in 2026 or later. There is no cap on how many times it stacks.
The one hard ceiling: the subsidy can never exceed the rent actually written on your lease. That is why the range above stops mattering at some point — a big multiplier on a small rent is capped at the rent.
We do not publish a county-by-county amount table. The official base amounts are grouped by township and district, not by county, and New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung each span two groups. Retyping that into a county table is how figures go wrong. Use the official eligibility check and calculator for your own district.
You do not move your household registration
You do not need to move your 戶籍 to the address you rent. The rule looks only at whether there is a real tenancy — that is, a lease. Your registered address can stay exactly where it is.
A landlord also cannot validly require you not to apply, not to move your registration in, or not to declare the rent on your taxes. A lease clause saying any of those things is void and unenforceable.
When to apply
Applications are open from 9:00 on 1 January to 17:00 on 31 December, and they are processed as they arrive — first come, handled in turn, not a timed draw. There is no advantage to filing on day one.
If you were approved last year and nothing about your situation changed, your case is carried into the system automatically and you do not re-apply. Filing again does not speed anything up. If you are unsure which situation you are in, check on the official site rather than guessing.
If your landlord objects
Landlords sometimes refuse to cooperate because the tenancy gets recorded. That problem — the tax arguments that change their mind, and what to do if they threaten to raise the rent — is covered in detail in our rent subsidy and rental dispute guide.
Where to get help
- 1990 — the hotline for foreign residents (24 hours, Chinese/English/Japanese), for eligibility questions.
- 1950 — the consumer service hotline, for landlord disputes.