The average interest rate of new housing loans from the nation’s five major mortgage providers last month fell for the fourth consecutive month to a multiyear low, as banks are under pressure to offer cheaper loans.
The average mortgage rate of the five providers — Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) — dropped to 1.620 percent, 0.004 percentage points lower than the 1.624 percent in June, central bank data released yesterday showed.
Competing for consumers in an already crowded market accounted for the declining mortgage rates last month, as self-occupancy continued to hold the housing market up, the central bank said.
The lowest mortgage rate was last recorded in May 2010, when the figure reached 1.616 percent, the central bank said.
Mortgage rates are primarily tied to short-term rates, which the central bank has kept unchanged since September 2016.
The five banks’ data are used to gauge the overall health of the nation’s property market, as their combined loans account for about 40 percent of the total mortgages extended by local lenders.
Housing loans by the five state-run banks last month dropped 0.46 percent month-on-month, but rose 5.84 percent year-on-year to NT$41.15 billion (US$1.34 billion), with outstanding mortgages with preferential interest rates for first-time home buyers reaching NT$7.2 billion, up NT$400 million from the previous month and accounting for 17.5 percent of their total housing loans, central bank data showed.
Housing transactions in the six special municipalities increased by 4.9 percent from 18,745 units in June to 19,668 units last month, and rose 15.3 percent year-on-year from 17,062 units, local government data released earlier this month showed.
In the first seven months of the year, the five state banks’ mortgage loans totaled NT$282.38 billion, up 8.84 percent from NT$244.42 billion a year earlier. Housing deals in the six municipalities during the same period increased 6.4 percent year-on-year from 115,695 units to 123,043 units, central bank and local government statistics showed.
Separately, the five banks last month saw their average lending rates increase to 1.457 percent, up 0.156 percentage points from 1.301 percent a month earlier, which the central bank attributed to higher costs on loans intended for working capital and capital expenditure.
Excluding government loans, interest rates averaged 1.489 percent, up 0.176 percentage points from 1.313 percent in June, the central bank said in an e-mailed statement.
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