Property buying interest rose significantly in Taipei last month, encouraged by central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan’s (彭淮南) statement that the market has seen a soft landing.
Buying interest picked up 34 percent in the capital last month, compared with one month earlier, as prospective buyers started looking around instead of staying on the sidelines because of fears of a price fall, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) researcher Jay Hsieh (謝志傑) said.
The recovery in confidence came after Perng on Oct. 26 told the legislature’s Finance Committee that the property market has seen a soft landing, as evidenced by the improvement in transactions and stable prices.
Buying interest gained most markedly in the city’s prime Xinyi (信義), Daan (大安) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts, with budgets widening from NT$10 million to NT$40 million (US$331,268 to US$1.32 million), Hsieh said.
The government’s real-price transaction Web site showed two recent luxury home deals of NT$492 million and NT$300 million in Zhongzheng District, which translate into NT$2.68 million and NT$1.89 million per ping (3.3m2) respectively, Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) said.
The latest government data showed that luxury housing prices held relatively firm in a number of cases, Sinyi Realty researcher Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.
There were 32 luxury housing deals worth more than NT$200 million in the first nine months of this year, a sharp rise from 18 during the same time last year, Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) said.
That is a sign of a change in sentiment, although expectations of a price fall linger, the broker said, adding that more sellers might opt to cash out toward the end of the year.
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