Owning a house has become increasingly unaffordable in Taipei City in light of soaring prices and falling disposable income for average households, a recent survey by a local real estate service provider found.
From January to this month, a 30 ping (99.18m²) apartment cost about NT$14.31 million (US$44,700), or NT$477,000 per ping, according to Sinyi Realty Co (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed real estate brokerage.
That is about 11.5 times more than the average disposable income of NT$1.25 million for individual households in the city, compared with 9.9 times a year earlier, the report said.
“In the absence of financial help, it is impractical for the average family to buy a house as it would take more than a decade to pay off the mortgage,” Stanley Su (蘇啟榮), a senior researcher at Sinyi said.
Rising housing prices led the central bank to hike interest rates by 12.5 basis points in June as well as introduce selective credit controls in Taipei City and 10 popular areas of Taipei County to help curb rising housing prices.
A rate hike of 12.5 basis points adds an extra NT$47 per month to every NT$1 million of mortgaged money, according to Sinyi’s estimate.
While the central bank’s tightening measures have yet to trigger a notable price correction, housing turnover has dropped 10 percent, signaling residential prices in the Greater Taipei area are unlikely to climb higher in the foreseeable future, Su said.
Nationwide, annual disposable incomes for average households fell 2.9 percent year-on-year to NT$888,000 last year, the lowest level since 2003, data released on Aug. 19 by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics showed.
An average household consists of 3.34 members with 1.46 of them making regular financial contributions each month, according to the agency.
The figures showed it is even more difficult for residents from other parts of Taiwan to own a house in Taipei City.
Su said he expected more and more people to settle in Taipei County, where an apartment of 30 ping costs an average of NT$6.93 million, based on price data for the first eight months.
The amount, 7.8 times as much as disposable income, is more affordable for average families, the report said, adding that the burden drops further to 3.3 times in Kaohsiung City.
Sinyi advises home owners and potential buyers to brace for higher mortgage burdens as the central bank is likely to raise interest rates by another 12.5 basis points in its quarterly board meeting next month to cool the property sector.
The central bank’s benchmark discount rate remains low at its current 1.375 percent, while the nation’s strong second-quarter GDP growth of 12.53 percent would give the central bank room for further tightening, the brokerage said.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is weighing whether to add a life insurance business to its portfolio, but would tread cautiously after completing three acquisitions in quick succession, president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said yesterday. “We are carefully considering whether life insurance should play a role in SinoPac’s business map,” Chu told reporters ahead of an earnings conference. “Our priority is to ensure the success of the deals we have already made, even though we are tracking some possible targets.” Local media have reported that Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), which is seeking buyers amid financial strains, has invited three financial
RSS