Presale housing projects in northern Taiwan dropped to a 14-year low of NT$11.8 billion (US$359.39 million) last month. The figure corresponds to an amount less than 30 percent of the total in June, as concerns over sluggish transactions drove developers to sit out the lunar Ghost Month.
Ghost Month, during which people tend to shun moving into new apartments, starting businesses or getting married in order to avoid bad luck, falls between Aug. 14 and Sept. 12 this year.
“Tradition aside, the nation’s poor economy and stock rout feed unease among prospective buyers,” Housing Monthly (住展雜誌) research manager Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said in a telephone interview.
The magazine’s monthly business climate gauge moved to “blue” last month, from “yellow-blue” in July, indicating that the presale housing market has entered a recession.
Developers and builders put up 22 presale projects in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Keelung and Yilan last month, with discounts of 25 percent to 60 percent, but failed to stir interest, Ho said.
Ho dismissed ongoing discount hype as mere advertisement rhetoric, to which potential buyers have grown immune, adding that many potential customers were asking for a 20 percent concession on floor prices.
The tug-of-war would continue to suppress future transactions unless the supply side made genuine and noticeable concessions, Ho said, adding that fundamentals were unfavorable for the sellers.
Property advertisements shrank 28.7 percent last month from July, as adverse weather conditions prevented prospective buyers from visiting construction sites, Ho said.
HouseFun, a property publication owned by Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), also voiced a dim view, saying there were only three presale housing projects valued more than NT$1 billion during Ghost Month.
HouseFun head Ni Tze-jen (倪子仁) said he excluded Yilan from his survey for the duration of Ghost Month.
By that account, the construction volume reached only NT$4.7 billion, down 95 percent from the same period last year standing at about NT$100 billion, Ni said.
The figures reflected a sharp downturn of confidence on the developers’ side and the conservative strategy was helping the market digest surplus supply, Ni said.
“It is time for a price correction in the market in order to relieve the stifled transactions after a decade of boom,” Ni said.
Bleak sales last month suggested an extended soft patch for the upcoming fall season that starts late this month and continues through October, Ni said.
The central bank should consider lifting mortgage restrictions from more districts in New Taipei City if it was serious about supporting the economy, Ni said.
The monetary policymaker last month removed the districts of Yingge (鶯歌) and Bali (八里) from the restriction list, saying credit controls proved effective in curbing property speculation in those districts.
Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) yesterday launched its first electric bicycle, the Gogoro Eeyo 1, in Taiwan, after unveiling the bike in New York in late May and in France on Tuesday. The company said it would also introduce the series in other European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands. The “Eeyo project” is the fourth of Gogoro’s eight projects that concentrate on smart transportation, which includes Gogoro’s electric scooter, battery swap system and electric scooter sharing service, company founder and chief executive officer Horace Luke (陸學森) told a media briefing in Taipei. “There are various types of city commuters. We will not
BAD RAP: The exchange said Tatung had seriously breached shareholders’ rights and failed to give a satisfactory explanation of its board election dispute Tatung Co (大同) shares yesterday plunged by the maximum daily limit of 10 percent to NT$18.90, the lowest in three months, after the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) on Tuesday evening changed the company’s classification to a full-delivery stock effective tomorrow. The TWSE’s move follows the company’s failure to give a clear and satisfactory explanation of why it deprived dozens of shareholders of their voting rights during a board election at the annual shareholders’ meeting on Tuesday morning. Under the exchange’s regulations, investors are not allowed to engage in margin trading of a full-delivery stock, TWSE spokeswoman Rebecca Chen (陳麗卿) told
With the US dollar expected to weaken in the next 12 months due to near-zero interest rates, investors should consider purchasing US corporate bonds, Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan Ltd (渣打台灣銀行) said on Thursday. The bank said that the US Federal Reserve since last month has been buying bonds issued by US companies to curb default rates. The US dollar is forecast to be weaker against the pound, the euro and the yen, as well as the Canadian dollar, the Swedish krona and the Swiss franc, as the greenback lacks high investment returns after the Fed in March slashed the benchmark interest rate
SIZE MATTERS: Medium-sized hotels that do not have the support of parent groups are more vulnerable and are forced to take action, a REPro Knight Frank researcher said About 50 hotels across Taiwan are seeking to exit the market as they succumb to the bleak business outlook amid international travel restrictions imposed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Yomi Hotel (優美飯店) on Minsheng E Road, Sec 1, in Taipei is seeking to transfer ownership with an asking price of NT$950 million (US$32.15 million) and a pledge for a lease contract that guarantees a 3 percent return. The budget hotel, with room rates that start from NT$1,400 per night, maintains normal operations, but has been struggling since March, when the government placed restrictions on inbound and outbound travel. Occupancy rates for hotels in
RSS