Mon, Apr 04, 2011 page12

• Proposed luxury tax impacts real estate

  SELF REINFORCING: Before the tax meant to discourage property speculation has even been approved, real-estate transactions have nosedived, halving in some areas

  • By Crystal Hsu / Staff Reporter
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  Taiwan’s housing market took a nosedive last month, with transactions nearly halving in some areas. Speculators bowed out of the real-estate market and home buyers bargained for lower prices after the government unveiled plans to tax short-term property transfers, brokerages said.

  Sinyi Realty Co (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed brokerage, saw its housing transactions decline 18 percent and 30 percent in Taipei City and New Taipei City from their January levels, a company statement said. February sales are usually removed from monthly comparison because there are fewer working days.

  The size of the decline — which the real-estate service provider attributed to a proposed luxury tax, on which legislators have yet to vote, but plan to implement on July 1 — was on par with the nosedive following the onset of the global financial crisis in September 2008, Sinyi head researcher Stanley Su (蘇啟榮) said.

  “The March figures showed that the impact of the [proposed] luxury tax on home sales was equal in strength to the financial crisis,” Su said by telephone.

  Su said he expected the correction to worsen in the next few months as the tax bill gains -headway to become law.

  The government plans to impose a 10 percent luxury levy on properties resold within two years of purchase to cool real-estate fever starting on July 1. The rate would climb to 15 percent if properties are sold within one year of purchase.

  Home sales in Taoyuan, Taichung and Kaohsiung shrank 20 percent last month from January as prospective buyers turned cautious, while sellers refused to soften prices, Su said.

  Housing prices in Taipei City and New Taipei City dropped a modest 3.2 percent and 2.3 percent last month, Su said.

  “As the luxury tax looms, sellers in need of cash will be willing to make bigger concessions,” Su said.

  Real-estate broker H&B Business Group (住商不動產) saw home sales volume plunging 30 percent nationwide last month from January, bucking past trends as March is usually considered a high season.

  Housing transactions in Taipei City and New Taipei City, which account for 50 percent of overall trading, plummeted 48.7 percent and 39 percent, H&B spokeswoman Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.

  “The luxury tax appeared to scare away investors, while home buyers looked for better bargains,” Hsu said.

  Home sellers, however, are reluctant to budge as housing prices in Greater Taipei barely moved, Hsu said.

  Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋), a Taoyuan-based brokerage targeting used-home sales outside the Taipei area, said trading volume in Greater Taichung fell 30 percent last month from January, while transactions elsewhere dropped 15 percent.

  Taiwan Realty’s head researcher Chiu Tai-hsuan also pinned the blame squarely on the proposed tax. Chiu said southern Taiwan, where housing prices are more affordable, appeared less vulnerable to the levy.

  The bearish sentiment also extended to the presale housing market. Housing Monthly (住展雜誌), a Chinese-language magazine that regularly tracks transactions for presale housing projects and newly completed homes, said trading volume halved last month, with construction projects in Neihu, Nankang and Hsinchu County seeing no deals for two weeks in a row.

  The publication assigned a “blue” light for the property market last month, suggesting a downturn for the sector in the coming months, the statement said.
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