Transactions of previously owned homes in six major areas of Taiwan showed signs of a recovery last month from a month earlier, indicating that buying in the local property market has picked up, statistics released on Saturday showed.
According to the statistics compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋), one of Taiwan’s leading property agents, transactions on second-hand homes rose 6.89 percent month-on-month in six areas.
The areas described by the real estate agents are Taipei City, New Taipei City (新北市), Taoyuan County, Hsinchu County, Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung.
Taiwan Realty statistics indicate that Taoyuan and Hsinchu enjoyed the highest growth in transactions, up 16.36 percent from the previous month.
In terms of second-hand home prices, the six areas reported an average price drop of 0.74 percent month-on-month, although the real estate agent said the decline was mild, indicating that home prices remained stable.
According to Taiwan Realty, the average price of second-hand homes in Taipei City rose 0.27 percent, the highest increase among the six areas, followed by Taoyuan County with 0.07 percent.
The average price of second-hand homes stood at NT$547,200 (US$18,676) per ping in Taipei, NT$293,900 in New Taipei City, NT$140,100 in Taoyuan, NT$164,800 in Hsinchu, NT$165,400 in Taichung and NT$132,500 in Kaohsiung, the company said.
Looking ahead, Stanley Su (蘇啟榮), an analyst with Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), said he is cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the property market in the fourth quarter on the back of high liquidity.
Su said that after the US Federal Reserve launched a third round of quantitative easing in the middle of last month to boost the economy, the market began to see an increase in liquidity on a spillover effect in Asia, which has prompted investors to pour money into the local property market.
Su said that in particular, major property developers and insurance companies have rushed to acquire land and commercial property to stir up buyer’s interest.
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