Amid a slowdown in the local property market, prices of homes near the Taipei MRT’s Tamsui-Xinyi Line fell 5.2 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said.
Citing data from the government’s home price registration Web site, Evertrust said the average prices of residential properties within 800m of stations along the line fell to NT$524,000 (US$16,535) per ping (3.3m2) over the past six months.
Even prices in the area around the Taipei 101-World Trade Center MRT station — considered a high-end business district — took a hit, with home prices falling 18.4 percent annually over the period, the sharpest decline among the 27 stations along the line, the data showed.
Average home prices in the station’s vicinity, where luxury residences are also clustered, fell from NT$879,000 per ping to NT$717,000 per ping during the period.
The sharp decline in home prices around the station is due to fading interest among investors in luxury homes, Evertrust spokesman Lin Tai-lung (林泰隆) said.
In the first half of the year, only one home priced at more than NT$1 million per ping was sold, Lin said.
Lin added that homes on nearby Wuxing Street sold for NT$500,000 to NT$600,000 per ping in the same period, which dragged down home prices around the station as a whole.
Home prices near MRT Beitou Station and MRT Minquan W Road Station fell 17.7 percent and 12.9 percent respectively from a year earlier, the second and third-sharpest drops along the line, the statistics showed.
Home prices near MRT Beitou Station fell to NT$408,000 per ping, Lin said.
As apartments without elevators in the area were sold for NT$300,000 to NT$400,000 per ping in the first six months of the year, and transactions of these apartments accounted for about 80 percent of total sales, the average home prices in the area trended down, Lin said.
As for MRT Minquan W Road Station, average home prices fell to NT$596,000 per ping in the same period, as homes in buildings with elevators that are more than 30 years old were priced from NT$400,000 to NT$500,000 per ping, depressing prices in the area, Lin said.
Lin said that the price drops defied the belief that the value of residential properties near MRT rail stations would be resilient.
Home prices could continue to fall, as confidence among investors and potential buyers remains weak, and expectations of further price declines persist, Lin said.
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