Homes bought in Taipei oldest among 6 largest cities in Taiwan in Q4

Taipei, June 3 (CNA) The average age of homes purchased in Taipei hit 37 years, the oldest among the six largest cities in Taiwan in the first quarter of this year, Taiwan Reality said Wednesday.

Data compiled by the property agent from statistics from the Ministry of the Interior showed the average age of homes purchased in Taipei stood above the average age of 31.7 years around Taiwan.

Among the six largest cities in Taiwan, Taoyuan recorded the lowest average age of homes purchased in the city at 27.4 years, while the average age of the other four cities --- New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung -- topped 30 years, the data indicated.

Charlene Chang (張旭嵐), head of Taiwan Realty's trend center, said in a statement that many home buyers favored old homes as they just wanted to take advantage of relatively affordable housing by ignoring the high age of homes, and such a buying trend boosted the age of homes purchased.

Taipei has a great number of old homes and many of these homes were located in established neighborhoods, which attracted home buyers, Chang said.

Chang said home buyers are expected to remodel their old homes to push up the value, paving the path to reselling the property in the future for a profit.

But Chang urged home buyers to keep a close eye on high remodeling expenses, while banks could provide relatively low mortgages to buyers of old homes.

In addition, Chang said many property developers have targeted homes with an age of more than 30 years for their urban renewal projects, resulting in rising transactions of old homes and allowing home buyers to benefit from future renewal plans.

Commenting on Taoyuan, Chang said the city's home market was boosted by an increase of potential home buyers who shunned much more expensive homes in Taipei and decided to move to Taoyuan.

Chang said Taoyuan provided a large volume of newly built homes in many newly developed areas, so the average age of homes purchased in the city was the lowest among the six biggest cities.

The lowest average age of homes purchased in Taipei was located in Neihu District, at an average age of 30.8 years in the fourth quarter, the data showed.

According to the data, the average age of homes purchased in Tamsui District of New Taipei and Taoyuan District of Taoyuan was about 20 years, while the average age of homes purchased in Shanhua District of Tainan was just 14.7 years, the lowest among the districts of the six cities.