The large number of old buildings in Taipei is making it more challenging to address the city’s rapidly aging population, a housing researcher said.
As of June, 11 of Taipei’s 12 districts were “super-aged,” meaning that at least 20 percent of their populations were aged 65 or older, housing researcher Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said on Saturday, citing Ministry of the Interior data.
Seventy-three percent of the city’s buildings are at least 30 years old, he added.
Photo: Taipei Times
“For every 1.37 homes in the city there is one home that was built before the 921 Earthquake in 1999,” he said.
Of the 368 administrative regions and districts nationwide, 191 — 51.9 percent of the total — are super-aged, he said.
While the aging population is a nationwide problem, the situation is particularly pronounced in Taipei, where 90 percent of districts are super-aged and half of the homes are more than 40 years old, he said.
As many as 18 percent of the city’s homes are 50 years old or older, and that number is growing, as urban renewal efforts fail to keep pace, Ho said.
“With housing prices so high, some buyers favor older buildings, which offer more space at lower prices,” he said. “Their mindset is that even though the buildings are 40 or 50 years old, they can live there and wait for the building to be replaced under an urban renewal project.”
Ministry data showed that of the 4,435 property sales and transfers in Taipei in the second quarter of this year, 2,829 were in buildings that were older than 30 years old, accounting for 63.79 percent of the total.
Of those 2,829 properties, 2,211 were more than 40 years old, accounting for nearly 78 percent of the aging properties sold, Ho said.
“One out of every 1.56 residential transfers in Taipei is an old property. Only 91 properties sold in the past five years were new, accounting for about 2.05 percent of the total,” he said. “That means that only one out of every 48.78 property transfers in Taipei is a new property.”
A building built before 1999 — when new construction standards were introduced to improve their earthquake resilience — is not necessarily dangerous to live in, Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.
“However, buildings constructed after that date follow stricter standards,” he said.
Andy Huang (黃舒衛), director of Landlord Representation Services at Colliers International Taiwan, said the situation is in a downward spiral, with older buildings decreasing in value as the financial capacity of elderly people declines as they get older, he said.
“Outside assistance is needed to balance the quality of life and financial situation of older people, especially amid this housing market,” he said. “Otherwise, social risks would worsen.”
To address the housing crisis faced by older people, Huang recommended integrating policies and resources, while accelerating the institutional reform of the rental market and social housing.
DEFENSE: The first set of three NASAMS that were previously purchased is expected to be delivered by the end of this year and deployed near the capital, sources said Taiwan plans to procure 28 more sets of M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as nine additional sets of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), military sources said yesterday. Taiwan had previously purchased 29 HIMARS launchers from the US and received the first 11 last year. Once the planned purchases are completed and delivered, Taiwan would have 57 sets of HIMARS. The army has also increased the number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) purchased from 64 to 84, the sources added. Each HIMARS launch pod can carry six Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, capable of
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
TRAJECTORY: The severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday, and would influence the nation to varying degrees, a forecaster said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it would likely issue a sea warning for Tropical Storm Podul tomorrow morning and a land warning that evening at the earliest. CWA forecaster Lin Ting-yi (林定宜) said the severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving west at 21kph and packing sustained winds of 108kph and gusts of up to 136.8kph, the CWA said. Lin said that the tropical storm was about 1,710km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, with two possible trajectories over the next one
RSS