Despite the political turbulence triggered by the disputed election in March, the nation's property market in the first quarter continued to show strong signs of a recovery thanks to an increase of approved construction licenses, according to a report released yesterday.
The report, prepared by the Architecture and Building Research Institute under the Ministry of the Interior, showed that the nation's index of leading property indicators increased by 0.87 percent from last quarter to 104.12 points, flashing a green light for the third consecutive month to signify that a full recovery within the next three quarters is still possible.
"The political impact and the TAIEX's fluctuation slowed real-estate sales down slightly in the first quarter," said Chang Chin-oh (張金顎), a land economics professor at National Chengchi University, "but the market continues to head toward a stable and mild recovery."
Moreover, the growth momentum in the next two quarters is expected to be higher than in the first quarter, Chang said, adding that he was optimistic that the property market would rebound.
The expected market recovery should be a healthy one, since most home shoppers intend to buy properties for their own use, while investors are expected to account for only 15 to 20 percent of the market, Chang said.
According to Chang, low interest rates, the success in domestic banks' aggressive policy of writing off bad loans, preferential home mortgages and halved incremental land taxes all contributed to the first quarter's growth.
However, Chang cautioned that negative factors such as the fluctuations of the TAIEX, the US Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates and China's measures to cool down its overheating economy may pose a shock to the market.
The institute's director-general Hsiao Chiang-pi (
Chang agreed, saying that most of the nation's land developers, construction companies and real-estate brokers are very upbeat about the property market's prosperity in the second and third quarter, based on the belief that property prices can increase significantly in the near future.
According to the report, the property industries in the center of the country appeared to be more optimistic than those in the north and south.
Chang said that the property sector in the central region has exaggerated the market's recovery following a business manipulation of the soon-to-be-established science-based industrial park in central Taiwan.
In response to yesterday's report, Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said that the nation's political stability should be maintained, especially since property investors' confidence in the local economy appears to have been restored.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the