The Survival of Unauthorised Building Extensions and Political Lobby in Taipei City

Building Extensions without prior permission such as a penthouse on top of a building or conversion of a balcony into part of a living room are not unusual in Taipei City, actually all over Taiwan. Some of those unauthorised extensions are reported to the city and waiting to be demolished. However, due to the resource constraint, unauthorised extensions are often not torn down for another few months, even years. In addition, some building owners seek assistance from city councilors to make a plea to the officials in charge to demolish the extensions at a later date. Assistance of this kind is often regarded as the return of a favour from the councilor to his potential supporters. The exchange of vote and assistance between residents and politicians has long been recognized in Taiwanese culture. However, empirical evidence is at best anecdotal. Based on the details of 180,925 listed unauthorized extensions recorded between years 1995 and 2020 in Taipei, a survival regression model is undertaken to explore the factors that determine the expected remaining life of those extensions after they are placed on the demolition list. Among other factors, political lobby is proven to be effective in prolonging the remaining life. Besides, involvement of more councilors reinforces the effectiveness of lobby.