A 133-year-old Buddhist temple in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) is located on one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in the municipality.
The plot of land that is home to the Shenchiu Fude Temple is valued at NT$118 million (US$3.57 million) and is likely to increase in value next year by NT$4 million.
The recent valuations announced by the city’s Land Administration Office valued land at NT$770,000 per square meter, staffer Hsu Feng-yi (徐鳳儀) said, meaning each ping (3.3m2) is worth NT$2.31 million.
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
The temple’s plot, at 154.3m2, is valued at NT$118 million, about the same as the most expensive buildings in the New Banciao Train Station Special Zone, the Panhsin Twin Towers.
Estimates that the land valuations would rise by 3.46 percent next year over this year’s means the value of temple’s site could increase by NT$4 million, Hsu said.
The temple was first established in 1882, but its current location is its second, having first been erected where the municipal revenue service building now sits.
The temple was moved to a corner of Sinfu Road and Jhongshan Road in 1957, and in 1999 the subject of relocation came up again when then-Banciao City was planning the Banciao Train Station Special Zone, temple officials said.
Local residents petitioned city authorities to keep the temple where it was and in the end the temple authorities exchanged the land on which the building sits with the city government for a plot in the zone.
The owner of the temple’s site is the New Taipei City Government, Hsu said.
Real-estate agents said housing units in the special area are selling for an average of NT$700,000 to NT$800,000 per ping, but have gone as high as NT$900,000 or NT$1 million. Government announcements show that a plot of land on Banciao’s Jhongshan Road Sec 1 sold for NT$722,000 per ping in September, they said.
A resident surnamed Huang (黃) said the temple is an important center in the area, and that residents feel secure because they believe having the temple nearby gives them the Buddha’s blessing.
A resident surnamed Lin (林) said the temple was surrounded by condominiums, with plenty of parks, sidewalks, movie theaters and department stores, while a YouBike station has made living in the area even more convenient.
“It is possibly the most luxuriously situated Fude temple in all of Taiwan,” Lin said.
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