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Real estate company sees property boom after vote

Affected by the campaign frenzy leading up to today's local government elections, the housing market has been temporarily put on the back burner. But a boom is expected by the end of the year, according to a report released by the nation's largest housing agent yesterday.

The elections should only exert limited influence on the real estate market, said Victor Chang (張欣民), director of the research and development division at Sinyi Real Estate Inc (信義房屋). That's because few national policy issues or the independence-unification debate are addressed, and voters are less mobilized, he said.

In the local elections held in 1993 and 1997, transactions and prices did not see strong fluctuations before and after the polls, but rather stayed within a 5-percent range, according to the agency's statistics.

The elections held in December 2001 for lawmakers and city and county chiefs, however, saw transaction volume jump by 48.1 percent in the two months after the poll and housing prices edge up by 0.5 percent.

But that was because the preferential mortgage rate slid from 5.35 percent in 2000 to 3.15 percent, in accordance with the central bank's lowering of the benchmark interest rate at that time, as well as the government's decision to cut some land taxes in half, the report said.

The situation is different this time around, Chang said.

Today's elections have been viewed as a prelude to the 2008 presidential race. Electioneering gimmicks, including muckraking VCDs and the reform of the 18-percent preferential interest rate for retired public servants, soldiers and teachers, have been employed to spice up what was originally an apathetic atmosphere.

"Prospective homebuyers are therefore adopting a wait-and-see attitude toward pre-sale housing units," Chang said, adding that construction companies usually tend to advance or postpone the launch of new housing projects to avoid any impact from elections.

By contrast, built-house transactions are less prone to election-related disturbances, as consumers mostly have immediate housing demands and agencies can maintain contact with customers despite the overwhelming volume of election advertisements and campaigns, the report said.

"The wait-and-see attitude of homebuyers should fade away after [today's] elections and property market growth is set to bounce back by the year-end," Chang said.
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