With the misery index on home purchases continuing to rise, a house in Taipei City will cost an average of 13.38 years of income for an ordinary salaried worker, Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said in a statement yesterday.
A house in the suburbs of Taipei City will cost about nine years of income, while one in Taipei County will cost an average of 7.8 years of income, almost half the amount required for a house in Taipei City, the realtor said.
“With real estate prices remaining high in downtown Taipei, the general public has found it difficult to buy a home in the city,” Huang Cheng-fu (黃增福), an assistant manager at Evertrust, said in the statement.
Huang said middle-class workers were forced to purchase homes in the suburbs of Taipei, adding that the MRT network had shortened the distance between Taipei City and Taipei County.
“An increasing number of people choose to work in Taipei City while living in Taipei County in exchange for larger living space and low-priced homes,” Huang said.
Evertrust data showed that Wenshan District (文山) had become the most popular area in Taipei with home shoppers last year, surpassing Daan District, which used to be the top choice in previous years.
In related news, a report in the Chinese-language Housing Monthly yesterday showed that the property market indicator flashed a healthy “green” light last month after showing a recessionary “blue” light in January.
The score rose three points to 35 last month, up from the 32 points in January, the report said.
A total property value of NT$21.6 billion (US$675 million) went up for sale last month, an increase of 8 percent from the previous month, the magazine said in a press release.
“The room for price negotiations narrowed to an 11 percent discount last month from an 11.2 percent discount in January, a four-month contraction since November,” said Nii Tzu-jung (倪子仁), an executive at the magazine.
Nii attributed the reduced room for price negotiations to soaring land prices, which have considerably increased construction costs. In light of the narrowed profits, builders and developers have raised their prices for new projects.
The magazine said a total of NT$193.7 billion in properties would be put up for sale around March 29, the second-largest aggregate value in a decade after the NT$220 billion recorded in 2008 because of the presidential election.
“This means that developers are very optimistic about the real estate market following the Lunar New Year,” it said.
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