South Korea’s land prices fell last month, the first decline in eight years, as demand for property weakened amid a global economic slowdown.
The average price fell 1.4 percent last month from October, the first decline since 2000, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said yesterday in a statement on its Web site.
South Korea’s real-estate industry, which accounts for about 20 percent of the economy, is reeling after the backlog of unsold homes reached the highest level in more than a decade. Land prices in Seoul slid 2.7 percent last month, extending the previous month’s 0.2 percent drop, according to the statement.
Residential-land prices in urban areas fell 1.8 percent last month from the previous month, while commercial-property prices declined 1.6 percent, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, South Korea may allow pension funds, financial institutions and home developers to create real estate investment trusts (REITs) to help construction companies by acquiring unsold homes.
The government is also considering tax breaks for pension funds and other companies that invest in the REITs, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime said in a statement yesterday.
Financial institutions in South Korea have agreed to extend the maturity of loans by a year to aid some cash-strapped construction companies as the number of unsold homes reach the highest level in more than a decade. The global financial crisis has dried up funds, making it more difficult for consumers to get loans to buy new homes and for builders to refinance debt.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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