There are therefore 97.55 percent more elderly households in the north compared to the south, and when encompassing Taichung, the north still has 35.55 percent more than the southern and central municipalities. Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei TimesMany young Taiwanese from the south migrate northward for job opportunities, which in theory should leave many households in the south with only elderly residents, real-estate experts said. Of the 370,600 households of only elderly people in the north, about 288,800, or 77.93 percent, were single-occupant elderly households, data show. Therefore, the number of elderly leveraging property ownership for pension benefits has increased, with the scheme a significant contributor to the large number of elderly households in the north, he added. Single-resident elderly households are a common occurrence and a result of the rural-urban divide, Sinyi Realty research center manager Tseng Ching-te (曾敬德) said.
