The number of real-estate transfers last month expanded 23 percent in Taiwan’s six special municipalities from a month earlier, as the market responded to the central bank’s eased mortgage terms and interest rate cuts, housing researchers said, citing government data.
The scale of the monthly increase was larger than April’s 8 percent growth, according to separate local government data.
On an annual basis, the six municipalities — Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung — saw a total of 178,000 properties change hands last month, similar with the number that changed hands a year ago, data showed.
However, the results improved significantly from April, which saw an annual decline of 15 percent.
Housing brokers said the increased transfers mostly reflected transactions made in April, as it takes about one month to carry out a transfer of property.
The strong results followed the central bank’s easing of mortgage term policy in March, which has improved the public’s confidence in buying properties, brokers said.
Sinai Reality Inc (信義房屋) researcher Tseng Chin-der (曾敬德) said the number of property transfers last month was nearly the same as the same period last year, suggesting that the housing market has bottomed out.
Given that the new government has not announced any major tax reform policy, stabilization in the market is expected to continue for a while, Tseng said.
The number of transfers would likely show further improvement this month, he added.
“The housing market started out weak at the beginning of this year, but there is a chance that it might begin to turn stronger,” Tseng said in a statement.
EVERHOUSE’S VIEW
However, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) has taken a more conservative stance, saying that total housing transactions in the first five months of this year fell 21 percent to 65,000 units from last year’s 82,000 units, even though housing transactions showed improvement in April and last month.
“Whether last month’s growth momentum continues depends on property price levels,” Evertrust spokesman Lin Tai-lung (林泰隆) said in a statement.
NUMBER BREAKDOWNS
Property transfers in Taipei jumped 35 percent last month to 1,834 units, while New Taipei City saw a 31.35 percent growth rate to 3,919 units, data showed.
Taoyuan tranfers rose 21 percent to 4,398 units, the highest among the six municipalities, thanks to increased transfers of housing units for economically vulnerable families in the Gueishan District (龜山), housing brokers said.
Transfers in Kaohsiung rose 41 percent to 3,166 units, while Tainan saw 17 percent growth, data showed.
During the first five months of the year, total transfers in the six municipalities decreased by 21.8 percent from a year earlier to 64,000 units, government data showed.
"We forecast the annual property transaction volume to decrease by 4.5 percent YoY to 280,000 units in 2016 following the launch of various property tax reforms and dissipation of uncertainty," Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said in a client note.
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