State-owned Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), the main subsidiary of Taiwan Financial Holding Co (台灣金控), yesterday said that its board has approved plans to set aside NT$100 billion (US$3.32 billion) to support urban renewal projects.
The move came as the nation’s largest bank by loan book lends force to the government’s measured effort to prop up the construction industry without reviving a property fever.
“We have created a special mortgage operation aimed at helping facilitate renewal of the nation’s old buildings,” Bank of Taiwan chairman Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) told a media briefing.
Owners of buildings at least 30 years old or declared unsafe by authorities may apply for loans with preferential interest rates if they agree to urban renewal projects, Lyu said.
The mortgage operation is a supporting measure to new legislation that cuts both land and housing taxes for old and unsafe homes if their owners agree to tear them down and rebuild, he said.
About 140,000 buildings nationwide are more than 30 years old, with 50,000 of them in dire need of repairs and reinforcement, Ministry of the Interior data showed.
The ministry provides urban renewal projects with preferential floor space terms to help ease resistance from occupants.
Bank of Taiwan set the interest rates for renewal loans at 2.3 percent for the maximum duration of five years, Lyu said, adding that it would give further discounts if home owners are still paying mortgages.
Potential applicants may borrow up to 100 percent of their home’s values in special loans, as a lack of liquidity often slows the pace of renewal, Lyu said.
Small single houses also qualify for the lending program, although average urban renewal projects require minimum construction areas of 1,000m2, he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last