About three-quarters of Taiwanese think a proposed luxury tax would help curb the recent sharp rise in housing prices, but they doubt it would cause prices to actually fall by much, according to the results of a survey released on Monday.
The poll was conducted by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) in response to the government’s plan to impose a 10 percent to 15 percent sales tax on short-term -housing transactions.
Though 73 percent of respondents felt the luxury tax would help curb real-estate speculation, 30 percent said they were still interested in buying a home within a year, an indication that the housing market remains strong.
WHAT IT WOULD TAKE
When asked how much housing prices would have to drop to increase their interest in buying, 32 percent of respondents said a 10 percent drop, 40 percent of respondents said a 10 to 20 percent fall, while only 5 percent said a decline of more than 30 percent.
Taiwan Realty’s head of research, Chiu Tai-hsuan (邱太?), said the findings indicated that most Taiwanese do not expect a major drop in residential property prices any time soon.
EXTRA HOMES
Respondents also did not expect owners of second homes to lower their asking prices if the luxury tax is enacted.
A vast majority of those surveyed — 88 percent — believed investors would still sell their extra homes for a profit, compared with only 7 percent who thought investors would be happy to break even and 5 percent who thought investors would be willing to sell for a loss.
The firm conducted the survey throughout all of last month and obtained a total of 1,320 valid responses.
The proposed luxury tax, now under review by the legislature, would impose a 15 percent sales tax on people who sell a home, other than the one they live in, within a year after buying it, and a 10 percent sales tax on those who sell such a unit in the second year after purchase.
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