Mortgage and rent top expenditures by Taiwanese families, accounting for NT$17,800 (US$550) of their spending each month this year, up from NT$16,892 four years ago, a survey by CARDIF Assurance Vie, Taiwan Branch, showed yesterday.
“Taiwanese spent slightly more on mortgage and rent, but cut down on their leisure and home facility expenses following the global financial crisis,” Jean Pierre Lepaud, chief business development officer of the French insurer, told a media briefing.
RENT, EDUCATION
The poll, which interviewed 600 people aged between 18 and 64 by telephone from Aug. 18 through Aug. 30, showed that 31 percent of respondents cited mortgage and rent as the biggest outlay, from 28 percent in 2005.
Children’s education came second at 29 percent, from 28 percent in 2005, the poll said.
LEISURE, CARS
Lepaud, whose company conducts the survey every four years, said that only 6 percent and 3 percent of respondents gave top priority to leisure activities and home facilities respectively, from 9 percent and 6 percent in 2005.
Despite the financial crisis, 6 percent of respondents said car purchases was their highest expenditure this year, from 5 percent in the previous poll.
CREDIT
The survey also showed a sharp increase in the number of people buying houses on credit, rising from 21 percent to 54 percent over the past four years.
The findings showed a tremendous growth potential for the local mortgage insurance market, Lepaud said.
“We expect the market to grow to NT$8 billion in the next four or five years,” from NT$2 billion at present, he said.
Ben Ng (黃旗興), general manager of the life insurer, said CARDIF mortgage insurance premiums almost doubled to NT$60 million per month this year, from NT$30 million last year.
Ng attributed the sudden increase to lower risk appetite and low interest rates on home mortgage.
CARDIF, the leading credit insurance provider worldwide, owns between 25 percent and 30 percent of the market in Taiwan.
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