Housing transactions might pick up 20 percent next year on the back of pent-up demand after political uncertainty settles in January, Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) said yesterday.
“The housing market might soon hit the bottom and stage a concrete comeback — after slumping 50 percent over the past two years — once the presidential and legislative elections are over,” company president Kevin Peng (彭培業) said.
Buyers with real demand would stop staying on the sidelines and take action after assessing the impact of the new property tax and election results, Peng said.
A 20 percent rebound is a conservative and reasonable forecast in light of the low interest rate environment and ample liquidity, he said.
Peng said that the central bank’s move to cut interest rates by 12.5 basis points last month sent a positive message to the market that modestly lowered borrowing costs.
The rate cut, coupled with a drop in home prices by 10 percent to 20 percent in different parts of the nation in the past two years, would lend support to the housing market, he said.
Taiwan Realty plans to expand its staff by 3,000 in Taiwan and another 600 in overseas outlets next year to take advantage of the expected pickup, Peng said, adding that the realtor is also to establish a new office in Phoenix, Arizona, early next year to further tap into the US property market.
It would be the third outlet in North America after Vancouver, Canada, and Los Angeles, California, the broker said.
Local home buyers have voiced interest in real-estate properties in major US and Canadian cities after tightening measures in Taiwan made local property investment unattractive, Peng said, adding that brokers also need to find new sales channels to stay viable.
Taiwan Realty is also set to open a new office in Osaka, Japan, next year after establishing a presence in Tokyo in June last year.
Sluggish trading in Taiwan drove more than 1,000 brokers out of business in the past two years, analysts said. There are about 7,500 registered property brokers and agencies in Taiwan.
“The density is probably too high since Taiwan is a small nation,” Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) said in the legislature yesterday when asked to comment on growing unemployment among brokers.
Chang attributed slow transactions to insufficient price corrections, saying that buyers would enter the market once sellers make greater concessions.
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