Housing transactions remained flat in Taipei City last month, staying near the trough they set during the global financial crisis in 2009, as the “luxury tax” and growing economic uncertainty continued to weigh on the market, analysts said yesterday.
The number of home transfers totaled 3,506 units last month, rising 0.49 percent from August at 3,489, but down 22.11 percent from the same period last year, according to data released by the city government yesterday.
The figures sent mixed a message — while the volume appeared to have bottomed out, the market is unlikely to stage a strong comeback in the foreseeable future because of a lack of catalysts, analysts said.
“Home sales dropped below the 4,000 level for the third month running, a phenomenon that was not observed even during the economic downturn in 2009,” said Stanley Su (蘇啟榮), head researcher at Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed broker.
Although the luxury tax and economic uncertainty have depressed home sales since March, sellers remain stiff-necked, Su said, attributing their refusal to lower prices to excess liquidity and low borrowing costs.
Homes priced between NT$10 million (US$329,511) and NT$20 million became the most popular real-estate products after speculators fled the market, while long-term investors opted to stay on the sidelines until the global economy shows more stability, Su said.
That explained why Wenshan District (文山) was more resistant to a volume correction last month as house prices costs there were relatively affordable, Su said.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), the nation’s largest real-estate broker by number of outlets, expects housing transactions to stay flat this quarter in the absence of major catalysts.
“It is already a comfort that transactions stopped falling last month despite continued financial market turmoil,” Evertrust researcher Andy Huang (黃舒衛) said by telephone.
That suggested the market is finding its footing, thanks to low interest rates that may stay the same for quite some time, providing support for housing prices, Huang said.
Home costs averaged NT$598,500 per ping (3.3m2) in Taipei City last month, almost unchanged from NT$509,000 per ping one month earlier, Huang said.
The central bank kept the discount rate intact at 1.875 percent last month, ending five straight quarters of rate hikes mainly to curb soaring housing prices, Huang said.
H&B Realty (住商不動產), another leading housing broker, expects first-time home buyers to support the market in the coming months on the back of preferential mortgage terms.
Capital is likely to take refuge in US dollars and cash until the government makes its housing policy stance known, H&B spokeswoman Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.
Both ruling and opposition parties have plugged tax reforms to make buying a house more affordable if they win the presidential election in January.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group