The number of third-quarter property acquisition deals by Chinese investors in Taiwan totaled just nine, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of the Interior.
The Department of Land Administration said that the number of property purchase deals by investors from China dropped to single digits for the first time since the third quarter of 2014, when the figure also stood at nine.
The data showed that the figure for the July-to-September period was a quarterly low since the first quarter of 2014, when the number was only seven.
In the first nine months of this year, there were 50 deals, including 20 in the first quarter and 21 in the second quarter.
The 50 deals marked a decrease from 57 over the same period last year. There were 86 such deals in all of last year, the data showed.
Despite the fall in the number of deals in the third quarter, the average value of the deals in the three-month period rose to a nine-quarter high of NT$37.498 million (US$1.185 million), the data showed.
Taiwan lifted a ban on Chinese investment in the nation’s property market in August 2002. The aggregate number of purchases by Chinese investors since then is 317, valued at at total of NT$5.17 billion, the data showed.
Local real-estate broker H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said that the figure shows that Chinese property buyers have been less enthusiastic than the local market expected and that their purchases were concentrated in major metropolitan areas.
H&B data showed 25 transactions in Taipei, 75 in New Taipei City, 34 in Taoyuan, 47 in Taichung and 92 in Kaohsiung.
H&B head of research Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said that most Chinese buyers own homes in Taiwan for self-dwelling purposes.
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