An increasing number of Taiwanese are expecting local housing prices to pick up in the current quarter and next year on limited supply and warming trade ties with China, a recent survey by a local housing brokerage showed.
About 33 percent of respondents to a quarterly survey by Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said that housing prices would rise this quarter, an increase of 2 percentage points, even though the central bank introduced selective credit controls in June to rein in soaring housing prices.
People expecting a price correction fell 16 percentage points to 32 percent from a quarter earlier, while respondents with neutral views gained 14 percentage points to 35 percent, the survey released last Thursday showed.
“The figures show the housing market is likely to emerge from the shadow of credit controls after the central bank failed to introduce new tightening measures in its policy meeting last month,” Evertrust Rehouse president Yeh Lin-chi (葉凌棋) said.
Yeh attributed the strengthening sentiment to healthy fundamentals and hopes of more capital inflows from China and other parts of the world after the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was signed in June. More than half of the respondents, or 53 percent, expected housing prices to move upward in the next 12 months, up 11 percentage points from the last survey conducted late June, the Evertrust survey indicated.
For the first time in 10 years, the government’s housing supply index dropped below the neutral 100 threshold to 99.89 in the second quarter, indicating a marginal shortage of housing, compared with the number of households nationwide.
Housing units available totaled 7.86 million at the end of June, lower than the number of households of 7.87 million, according to Ministry of Interior data released last week. DTZ, an international real estate service provider, predicted in a recent report that an additional US$71 billion in capital is targeting the Asia-Pacific region next year to exploit the region’s flourishing property market, an increase of 29 percent from this year.
Real estate transactions in the region tripled in the first half of this year, rising to US$64 billion from the same period last year, DTZ said.
Steady demand for residential real estate, the signing of the ECFA and favorable macroeconomic conditions are regarded as major reasons behind the price uptick on the local property market, the Evertrust survey showed.
The survey, which had 1,383 valid samples, was conducted between Sept. 14 and Sept. 24, indicated that most consider interest rates low at their current level and only hikes of more than 100 basis points would affect their willingness to buy housing property.
However, Yeh said the room for housing price increases is limited in the short term given the intensity of neutral sentiment.
A total of 54 percent consider now to the first half of next year the right time to buy houses, down 5 percentage points from three months earlier, the survey said.
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