Housing transactions tumbled last month from a year earlier, as investors fled the market and buyers waited on the sidelines in anticipation of lower price, analysts said yesterday.
Overall transactions remained soft last month, falling by a double-digit percentage from the previous year, despite a hefty rebound from a month earlier, according to Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), the nation’s largest real-estate agency by number of outlets.
Housing deals in Taipei surged 44 percent from February, but were 15 percent lower compared with the same period last year, Evertrust researcher Andy Huang (黃舒衛) said.
The analyst attributed the poor showing to the price gap between sellers and buyers, with the former setting prices on a par with figures posted on an official Web site, but buyers demanding a 5 percent discount on houses in Greater Taipei and bigger cuts elsewhere.
Transactions dropped by 29 percent in New Taipei City, 35 percent in Taichung and 28 percent in Kaohsiung compared with the previous year, Evertrust said.
Volumes also retreated by 48 percent in Taoyuan and 39 percent in Hsinchu, the broker added.
“Buyers are reluctant to close deals in the absence of a concrete price correction, although many plan to buy either for self-occupancy or to park their assets,” Huang said.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed real-estate broker, made similar observations, saying transactions softened 15 percent last month from the previous year, despite a 60 percent increase from a month earlier.
The figures suggested the market has emerged from disruptions related to the Lunar New Year holiday, but remains weighed down by policy uncertainty, Sinyi researcher Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.
Smaller, older apartments priced between NT$10 million (US$318,461) and NT$20 million underpinned the market in the capital, while houses priced between NT$7 million and NT$15 million were favored in New Taipei City, Tseng said.
Tseng expects the market to remain lackluster as unfavorable tax plans have put an end to expectations of capital gains.
The Ministry of Finance is tightening terms for a proposed separate income tax on property transactions after the previous draft was criticized as being overly lenient.
In the first quarter, housing transactions in the major cities contracted 10.7 percent from the same period last year, Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) said.
That meant the market has yet to hit bottom after transactions dropped to a 12-year low last year, Taiwan Realty said.
Taipei was the hardest hit, registering a 19.8 percent decline last quarter, followed by a 14.6 percent retreat in Hsinchu and a 13.7 percent correction in New Taipei City, the broker said.
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