Housing transactions in the nation’s major municipalities held steady last month from a month earlier as prospective buyers remained cautious amid talks of tax increases on second and third homes, brokers said.
The existing-home market recorded 21,216 deals in six major municipalities last month, edging up a lackluster 1.6 percent from March and beating forecasts of a concrete increase over the spring sales season, which fell between late March and last month.
“Talks of an antihoarding levy by the Ministry of Finance and street protests appear to have weighed on sentiment, despite a brighter economic outlook,” said Andy Huang (黃舒衛), a researcher at Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), the nation’s largest broker by number of offices.
Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) recently suggested imposing an antihoarding levy on second and third homes, in a continued bid to curb housing prices, especially in the capital, where prices are 15 times that of household incomes, and the highest in the world.
Buyers think it is better to stay on the sidelines, especially while they are unclear about the strength and magnitude of the house-hoarding tax,” Huang said, adding that policy uncertainty is unfavorable, no matter how it is to pan out later.
The ministry plans to organize a series of conferences in the summer to draw up measures to lower housing prices to a more affordable and reasonable level of 10 times household incomes.
Housing transactions inched up 0.8 percent to 2,778 deals in Taipei last month and up 2.4 percent to 5,161 deals in New Taipei City, respective authorities said on their Web site.
Frequent street protests helped deepen cautious sentiment as they gave the impression of instability, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) spokeswoman Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.
Housing transfers totaled 3,979 units in Taoyuan County last month, rising 3.3 percent from March, according to government statistics.
Transactions dipped 0.1 percent to 4,024 deals in Greater Taichung, but developers and builders remained optimistic about demand for new homes in central regions.
The south had mixed results last month as Greater Tainan recorded a 10 percent increase in housing transactions, but Greater Kaohsiung experienced a 3.2 percent fall, land authorities said.
Local residents dominated transactions in Greater Tainan, making it less susceptible to political or other external factors, Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) spokeswoman Charlene Chang (張旭嵐) said.
It is hard to tell the market’s performance going forward as unfavorable policies may neutralize the benefits of a rebounding economy, analysts said.
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