The nation’s rapid advancement toward becoming an aging society will create a huge demand not just for medical care, but also for safe home environments for the elderly, a real-estate agency said.
“The concept of creating an elderly friendly residential environment is still in its infancy in Taiwan,” Evertrust Rehouse spokesman Bright Lee (李建興) said.
However, as the society ages, public awareness of this issue will rise and home facilities for the elderly, from bathroom to balcony, will be seen as essential, Lee said.
“As a result, the market demand for such facilities is likely to grow very fast,” he added.
The over-65 population in Taiwan is more than 2.3 million, or nearly 11 percent of the total population, according to figures for this year compiled by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD).
In 20 years, the number of people in that age group will surge to 5.73 million, or 24 percent of the country’s population of 23 million, the CEPD has forecast.
Lee said the steep rise in the number of elderly people in the country, coupled with the disabled population, which now stands at 1 million, would drive demand for facilities creating a more convenient home environment for that demographic.
A recent survey conducted by the real estate agency found that 60 percent of people would prefer to live at home on their own when they grow old, while 15.33 percent would choose a nursing home or an assisted living complex.
That would translate into a market of 4 million people requiring special residential facilities in 20 years, the agency forecast.
The value of this market would amount to NT$3 trillion (US$100.3 billion) if each household spends NT$850,000 on renovations, Lee estimated.
The NT$850,000 figure was drawn from a recent experimental project by the Taipei City Government to convert a small apartment into a home for the elderly or disabled. The city government plans to soon expand the project to 50 apartments in public housing complexes, at a cost of NT$50 million.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS