Developers and construction firms plan to launch new home projects valued at NT$300 billion (US$1 billion) this quarter, from NT$50 billion last quarter, in anticipation of a confidence pickup after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was re-elected on Saturday, a report by a real-estate magazine said yesterday.
The presale and newly completed housing segment, a leading indicator of the residential property market, have shown signs of recovery on Ma’s electoral victory given the sharp increase in planned sales, the Chinese-language Housing Monthly (住展雜誌) said in the report.
Ma’s promise to strengthen trade ties with China in his second term has eased concerns about cross-trait tensions, reviving forecasts of peace dividends, including a property boom, the publication’s spokesman Ni Tzu-jen (倪子仁) said.
“Buying interest improved significantly after the election, as many had postponed purchase decisions until after political uncertainty settled,” he said by telephone.
The building materials and construction sub-index, which reflects the general share performance of property stocks, surged 3.06 percent yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, versus the benchmark TAIEX’s 1.65 percent rise.
Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設), the nation’s main developer, was up 1.77 percent to NT$51.7, Huang Hsiang Construction Co (皇翔建設) jumped 4.88 percent to NT$49.4 and Chong Hong Construction (長虹建設) ended 1.63 percent higher at NT$56.1.
Farglory expects pent-up demand to boost sales at the firm above NT$150 million a day during the first month of the next lunar year, which will fall between Jan. 23 and Feb. 21, chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) told a media briefing yesterday.
To that end, Farglory Development will step up sales of new housing and office buildings in Neihu District (內湖) in Taipei City, and in Jhonghe (中和), Sinjhuang (新莊) and Sijhih (汐止) districts in New Taipei City (新北市).
“Including another new housing project in Taoyuan, total revenue may reach NT$45 billion this quarter,” Chao said.
Chao, who also owns Farglory Life Insurance Co (遠雄人壽), Farglory Hotel (遠雄悅來飯店), Taiwan Solar Energy Corp (元晶太陽能) and Golden Biotechnology Corp (國鼎生物科技), said he has no intention of adjusting price tags.
While some market observers said the housing market would see downward price adjustment this year, given the government’s cooling measures and still-high housing inventories in the market, Chao said he believed the market had bottomed out last quarter and would begin a slow recovery this year.
“The worst is over,” Chao said. “The government is unlikely to introduce new measures to curb real-estate transactions because doing so may hurt the economy.”
Huang Hsiang Construction and Chong Hong Construction plan to put their newly completed upscale-housing projects on the market later this quarter, according to Housing Monthly. Huang Hsiang’s project in Taipei’s prime Xinyi District (信義) earlier boasted an asking price of NT$3 million per ping (3.3m2), while Chong Hong’s asking figure was NT$1.35 million per ping despite being located in suburban Neihu, Ni said.
“Their real closing prices will help guide the market amid general forecasts of a price correction by up to 25 percent this year,” Ni said.
Recovering buying interest extended to the second-hand segment, brokers said.
Centaline Property’s Taiwan branch said the number of people looking for homes increased by 30 percent over the weekend from the previous week.
“This shows that potential buyers’ confidence returned after the political situation stabilized,” said Kenny Yu (余志文), the brokerage’s manager.
Additional reporting by CNA
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