Amid public calls for government action to rein in soaring real estate prices, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) has hammered out a draft scheme with measures to let some of the air out of the local property market, the council said in a statement.
The proposed draft will soon be referred to the Cabinet for approval, the council said, adding that the government has addressed the issue of sharp hikes in home prices in metropolitan areas and will strive to help salaried workers purchase homes.
“Rising property prices have increased the financial burden on the public. For instance, the house price-to-income ratio in Taipei averages 9.06 percent while an average mortgage loan takes up about 36.12 percent of a household’s monthly income,” the CEPD said.
Blaming rocketing housing prices chiefly on lackluster demand, the council proposed increasing the supply of housing in metropolitan areas by building more affordable homes as well as offering subsidies to workers who wish to purchase.
However, Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), spokeswoman for real-estate broker HB Housing (住商不動產), disagreed.
Hsu told the Taipei Times by telephone that the government’s plan to build 4,000 “average-priced” residential units near Linkou (林口) in Taipei County was the product of “political considerations.”
“Taipei City currently has a shortfall of 20,000 residential houses. Building 4,000 houses in Taipei County will not effectively resolve the current imbalance of supply and demand,” Hsu said.
“Lower-priced public housing will impact regional property prices instead as people might choose to buy new houses over second-old houses for sale in the area,” she said.
Last week, the “Snails Without-Shells Alliance,” an organization of non-homeowners, called on the government to provide public housing “for rent rather than sale” in order to curb soaring real estate prices throughout Taiwan.
In response, council Vice Chairman Hu Chung-ying (胡仲英) said such a proposal is not “in line with national conditions” as most of the public prefer owning a home to renting. However, after considering excess demand for housing among the young, the government will not rule out the possibility of more moves to encourage renting.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure