Homes near Taipei’s public sports centers have gained in popularity in the past year as more people like to work out, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said yesterday.
About 83.1 percent of Taiwanese engaged in exercise activities last year and 33.5 percent had regular exercise, the Sports Administration said.
The trend has benefited homes near the city’s public sports centers because it is too hot to exercise outdoors in the summer and too cold in the winter, Evertrust spokesman Jay Hsieh (謝志傑) said.
In addition, there are a considerable number of rainy days when exercise outdoors is not an option, Hsieh said.
“The desire to take regular exercise probably lends support to housing transactions in the neighborhood of the city’s 12 public sports centers,” Hsieh said.
There were 624 transactions in the proximity of Zhongshan Sports Center (中山運動中心) between May last year and April, beating other districts, he said.
There were 339 deals in the vicinity of the sports center in Zhongzheng District (中正) during the same period, followed by Wanhua District’s (萬華) 308 transactions, he added.
Sports centers also have convenient locations, Hsieh said.
Home prices in Zhongzheng District are the highest at an average of NT$843,000 (US$27,114) per ping (3.3m2), while the most affordable are in Wenshan District (文山) at NT$434,000 per ping, Evertrust data showed.
Zhongzheng Sports Center (中正運動中心) is close to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and key government agencies, while the relative affordability of homes in Wenshan District explains why it has been a popular choice among first-time buyers, the broker said.
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