The real estate market recovery -- begun last year -- is continuing, with the index of leading indicators gaining 0.74 percent to 104.89 points in the second quarter, a government research institute said yesterday.
The index stood at 104.12 points in the first quarter.
While the real estate market climate score slightly dropped by one point to 13 in the second quarter, it continued to flash a "green" light for the fourth consecutive quarter, signifying steady growth, according to a report released yesterday by the Architecture and Building Research Institute under the Ministry of the Interior.
The survey also found, however, that more than half of industry players, including construction firms and real estate agents, are conservative about the outlook for the second half of this year, a researcher said at a press conference yesterday.
Aside from higher oil prices and other factors, expectations of an interest rate hike could have a real impact on supply and demand in the real-estate sector, said Peng Chien-wen (彭建文), an assistant professor in the department of real estate and built environment of National Taipei University.
The political impact of the year-end legislative elections also has the industry worried, he said.
The termination of the one-year extension of a 50-percent cut in the land-value increment tax next January and the government's decision not to provide more preferential mortgages for first-time home buyers once the current NT$300 billion fund is used up are both negative influences on the sector, Peng said.
"These factors are expected to linger and cloud the nation's property sector in the first quarter of next year," he said, adding that construction firms in the center of the country -- especially those in Taichung city and county, were most pessimistic about the market over the next two quarters.
Another industry veteran agreed with Peng's outlook, saying the market from the second quarter onwards next year could be less prosperous than this year, although there are still some hopeful signs.
"Skyrocketing oil prices could drive people to pour money into real estate, which is a better investment than stocks or other tools under such circumstances," said Victor Chang (張欣民), director of the research and development division of Sinyi Real Estate Inc (信義房屋), the nation's largest housing agent.
As long as the economic growth rate next year is more than 5 percent -- and given a good stock market performance and a decent inflation ratio of between 2 percent and 3 percent -- the market might remain robust next year, Chang said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last