The rebound in housing sales has slowed this quarter and might moderate for the rest of year as expectations of a further fall in housing prices dampen buying interest, a quarterly survey by Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) showed.
The nation’s largest broker by number of offices raised its full-year forecast for housing transactions for this year from between 250,000 and 260,000 to between 255,000 and 270,000, or an increase of between 4 and 10 percent from last year.
“The worst is likely over, but confidence remains fragile,” Evertrust general manager Yeh Ling-chi (葉凌棋) told a news conference on Wednesday.
The survey showed that 57 percent of respondents expect housing prices to fall next quarter and more than 60 percent believe it is not wise to sell or buy properties.
The findings suggest little room for a price rebound and concessions on the part of sellers remain the key to facilitate transactions, Yeh said.
Housing transactions in seven major cities totaled 102,641 units in the first five months of the year, a 19 percent increase from a year earlier, Evertrust Rehouse said, citing government data.
That confirmed a slowdown from a 30 percent pickup in the first quarter.
Like other economic barometers, the housing market benefited from a low comparison base during the January-to-March period, but the effect is in the process of diminishing.
“It is a mistake to take the improvement as a sign to increase prices or be inflexible, which could lead to a sluggish market in the second half of the year,” Yeh said.
Most respondents expect housing prices to fall by another 5 to 10 percent, after pulling back from a peak in 2014 by 13 percent, while about 58 percent said they would consider returning to the market when prices fall by about 15 percent, according to the survey, which collected 1,002 valid samples between May 29 and June 11.
Buying interest is stronger in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan, where further price corrections would motivate more than 60 percent of prospective buyers, the survey said.
The sentiment is bleakest in Taipei, where 58 percent of respondents prefer to stay on the sidelines, it found.
A government survey last week showed that it would take the average household 15.18 years to pay for a home in the capital.
House prices nationwide were 9.32 times the average household income.
The recent stock market rally has failed to lend support to property transactions in the nation, as local investors mostly played spectator this time, while foreign players increased holdings, Yeh said.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”