Taiwan’s presale and new home prices and transactions climbed to new highs in the first quarter, but the monthly pace of expansion showed signs of a slowdown as the luxury tax looms, a report released yesterday said.
Total sales for presale units and new homes reached NT$313.4 billion (US$10.84 billion) during the January-to-March period, gaining 36 percent from three months earlier and soaring 60.3 percent from a year earlier, the quarterly survey by Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設) and National Chengchi University’s Taiwan Real Estate Research Center (台灣房地產中心) found.
Meanwhile, the number of new homes rose 18.3 percent sequentially to 14,940 units, or 20.4 percent from a year earlier, the report indicated.
The latest data showed that the housing market remained robust, and “the luxury tax has yet to make an impact,” said Hua Ching-chun (花敬群), a finance and banking professor at Hsuan Chuang University and a member of the research panel.
Prices for new homes picked up 12.45 percent in the first quarter compared with a year ago, with New Taipei City (新北市) and Greater Kaohsiung each posting a 30 percent gain, the report showed.
The number of new homes surged 72 percent in New Taipei City in the first quarter, followed by 70 percent growth in Greater Taichung and 37.6 percent in Taipei City, the report said.
The 30-day trading volume also accelerated nationwide, spiking 1.75 times in Taipei City, 2.3 times in New Taipei City and 3.0 times in Greater Taichung, the report said.
Hua attributed the sharp expansion to sound economic fundamentals, as well as speculation.
“The increases in New Taipei City and Greater Taichung are abnormal, deepening concerns of a bubble,” he said. “These areas will come under heavier price correction pressure once the luxury tax takes effect.”
The tax will subject properties resold within two years of purchase to a 10 percent levy. The rate will rise to 15 percent if the properties are resold within one year of purchase.
The impending tax, which has dampened used-home sales by 30 percent, appeared to have little impact on new home prices or transactions in the first quarter, said Chang Chin-oh (張金鶚), a land economics professor at National Chengchi University and head of the research panel.
“The data disproves reports of a wave of cancelations by buyers,” Chang said.
Chang, an advocate of draconian tightening measures to curb housing prices, said the tax should start to impact the market after its implementation on June 1, given the gradual slowdown in monthly sales.
The increase in the 30-day sales volume nationwide slowed from 27.45 percent in January to 20.49 percent in February and 17.84 percent last month, the report said.
In Taipei City, the expansion in the 30-day sales volume slowed from 51 percent in January to 37.59 percent in February and 21.85 percent last month, the report found.
“Many sellers would rather hold on to their properties for a while than make price concessions prematurely,” Chang said. “However, it is housing prices, not transactions, that will determine if the tax is effective or not.”
Land developers are even more unlikely to lower prices because doing so would encourage clients to cancel earlier deals, he said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day