The government’s recent move to curb soaring housing prices is expected to further stabilize the real-estate market, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said yesterday.
Amid soaring property prices, the central bank and the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Monday they would examine local banks’ mortgage programs in an effort to rein in property speculation.
“These measures will affect real estate speculators most, but for long-term investors, the impact will be moderate,” Evertrust chairman Sun Ching-yu (孫慶餘) told reporters.
SQUEEZE
Sun said the government’s mortgage squeeze measures would be beneficial to a “healthy” development of the property market.
Investors reacted negatively to the government’s move, however, with the building material and construction subindex dropping nearly 2 percent yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which edged up 0.11 percent.
“Construction [shares] led all major sectors in declining, following reports that the central bank and the FSC would team up to rein in housing prices, as sky-high housing prices have been the No. 1 public discontent in this important election year,” SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券) said in a note yesterday.
Shares of Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設), the nation’s largest property developer, dropped 1.5 percent to NT$66, while Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設) fell 2.7 percent to NT$12.95.
On Monday, the central bank requested that local banks provide details within three days on their mortgage loans, including loan-to-value ratios, loan interest rates and grace periods (the period in which borrowers are allowed to pay only interests without the principal).
REVITALIZE
“The government’s measures will stabilize the housing market and allay public discontent with soaring property prices,” Evertrust general manager Yeh Ling-chi (葉凌棋) said.
Yeh added that extending the public transportation network would also help the slow down the pace of soaring housing prices in Taipei City.
Transportation construction is vital as it will spur land development in Taipei County and therefore solve the long-standing problem of insufficient property supply in Taipei City, he said.
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.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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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