Housing prices swung into positive territory in the second quarter with a modest 1.2 percent annual increase, but the growth still lagged behind the global average rise of 5.6 percent, statistics released yesterday by international property consultancy Knight Frank showed.
“Housing prices nationwide have stabilized after the government quit unfavorable policies,” Knight Frank Taipei-based research associate director Andy Huang (黃舒衛) said in a report.
Low interest rates helped spur buying interest and lent support to housing prices, explaining an 18.9 percent annual jump in housing transactions in the first six months of this year, he said.
Home prices in greater Taipei continued to decline, but at a marginal pace of 1 percent, in the April-to-June quarter, with the number of transactions in the area accounting for less than 33 percent of total transactions nationwide, Huang said.
Housing prices elsewhere in the nation gained more than 2 percent in the quarter, as prices of upscale housing units found support, while those of middle and low-priced homes staged a modest comeback, the report said.
Looking ahead, the domestic property market might stay flat for the rest of the year, as the central bank is unlikely to raise interest rates due to the nation’s economic fundamentals and the government has no reason to adopt unfavorable measures in the near term, Huang said.
A lack of affordability and limited wage increases might continue to weigh on the nation’s potential home buyers, while property investors have largely fled from the local market, he said.
Housing prices nationwide picked up 17 percent in the past five years, Huang said, citing the government’s real-price transaction platform data.
Taiwan ranked 44th in a survey of 55 nations, the Knight Frank report said, behind South Korea in 43rd place with a 1.3 percent annual increase in housing prices last quarter.
Iceland topped the survey with a 23.2 percent increase in the period, thanks to its fast-growing popularity as a global tourist destination, the report said.
With a population of 344,000 people, Iceland only has 130,000 housing units, but attracted 1.7 million tourists from around the world, the report said.
China ranked 12th with a 9.6 percent increase in home prices, while Japan finished 50th as home prices contracted 0.2 percent from the same period last year, the report said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure