Taipei’s house price index fell for the third consecutive month in September, with market analysts attributing the decline to cautious sentiment toward the local property market.
Fears over a potential hike in US interest rates by the US Federal Reserve made many home buyers wary of rising mortgage rates in Taiwan in September, analysts said.
Concerns over a government reform to make home sellers pay a tax based on the actual selling price instead of the government-estimated property value, which is only a fraction of the real sales value, also affected the market, analysts said.
The city’s house price index for September fell 0.52 percent from a month earlier to 117.38, marking the third consecutive month-on-month decline, according to the statistics released by the Department of Land of the Taipei City Government.
In July and August, the city’s house price index fell 0.33 percent and 0.89 percent respectively, from the previous month, after the index registered a month-on-month increase of 0.84 percent in June.
Statistics showed the price index for residential property located in buildings of six stories or more equipped with elevators fell 2.11 percent in September from a month earlier, while the price index of residential property located in buildings of five stories or less without elevators stayed unchanged.
September was the second consecutive month in which the price index for residential property located in buildings of six stories or more has dropped, the statistics showed.
In September, the average price per house in Taipei was NT$14.69 million (US$462,691), down from NT$14.76 million in August, while the house price per ping (3.3m2) fell to NT$540,100 from NT$543,000.
Despite the month-on-month decline, the house price index in September for Taipei represented an increase of 4.57 percent from the same period last year, statistics showed.
The index for residential property located in buildings of six stories or more gained 5.31 percent from a year earlier, while the index for residential property located in buildings of five stories or less fell 0.17 percent year-on-year, according to the data.
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