Existing home transactions in major cities declined 25 percent last month from a year earlier, suggesting the market has yet to hit the bottom, as new property tax measures are expected to clear the legislature tomorrow.
Housing transactions in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung — which accounted for about 80 percent of sales nationwide — totaled 17,199 units last month.
The figure is the lowest for the same month since the government started the survey in 1999, as prospective buyers turned more conservative ahead of the legislature’s adoption of new property tax plans.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is to host a cross-party discussion on the property tax bill today, so it might be passed by the legislature tomorrow, Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said.
Chang said he was confident over the bill’s smooth passage and that he was to join the discussion to clarify any misunderstandings and rally support.
The bill would levy an income tax rate of between 15 and 45 percent on gains from property transactions in excess of NT$4 million (US$129,360) depending on the length of ownership.
If approved, the new taxes will take effect next year, but will not affect homes already purchased.
Housing transactions in Taipei shrank 33.2 percent year-on-year to 2,151 units last month, while those in New Taipei City fell 34.9 percent to 3,911 units, according to information on the two city governments’ Web sites.
Housing transfers stood at 3,004 units in Taoyuan and 3,416 units in Taichung, representing a retreat of 31 percent and 13.8 percent respectively, according to the two Web sites.
“The market has not yet come out of the woods, judging from the sluggish trading,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) spokesman Andy Huang (黃舒衛) said.
The trend will put pressure on sellers to lower prices as prospective buyers refuse to raise their offers, Huang said.
However, sellers in general have not budged much, due to ample liquidity and low borrowing costs, he said.
Transactions also fell 15.9 percent year-on-year to 1,611 units in Tainan and 16.1 percent to 3,106 units in Kaohsiung, government data showed.
However, on a sequential basis, the figures were up 5.4 percent and 13.8 percent respectively from April. Evertrust attributed the increase to relative affordability in the southern cities.
The weak sentiment is likely to persist for a while until the market assimilates the impact of new property taxes after the legislature gives its go-ahead, Huang said.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS