The Ministry of Finance's move to offer an additional NT$200 billion in preferential home loans bolstered construction sector shares yesterday, with 29 out of 34 listed construction companies closing limit-up.
Vice Minister of Finance Sam Wang (
The plan is awaiting final approval by the Cabinet.
The loan package will allow home-buyers to borrow at a rate of 2.8 percent, Wang said. Mortgage rates are above 4 percent. Each home-buyer can borrow up to NT$2.5 million, he said.
The construction sector rose 5.6 percent on the TAIEX yesterday.
Cathay Real Estate Development Co (
"The ministry's announcement is really what we've been waiting to hear," said Lai Cheng-i (
The federation is home to some 3,000 members from the domestic real-estate sector.
"History has shown that preferential loans help," Lai said.
According to statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior last month, some 324,000 housing units -- both existing homes and new homes -- changed hands last year, up 25.1 percent from 259,000 units in 2001, the first increase year-on-year since 1996.
Lai said he has asked the ministry to put the new policy into effect as soon as possible.
"The previous loans are expected to be used up by end of February," Lai said. "So we expect the government to start the new package before the Lunar New Year holiday at the earliest."
He was discussing the conclusions of a meeting with Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday.
The government has so far offered a total of NT$720 billion in preferential home loans since August 2000.
That package has helped sell off some 400,000 housing units over the last 30 months, said Chen Chih-hui (
Another industry watcher yesterday also applauded the ministry's announcement.
"In the past, most people could not afford high property prices in Taiwan," said Jacky Tsai (
Property prices in Taiwan have stagnated or dropped in recent years because of an over-supply which was created in the late 1980s.
"This will be a very good opportunity for residential home-buyers," Tsai said. "For many Taiwanese, owning property is still a top priority."
While the real-estate market seems to be showing signs of recovery, the domestic construction sector is still keen on having the government open up links with the China as soon as possible.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by