Builders and developers last quarter launched NT$360.3 billion (US$11.71 billion) of presale and newly completed housing projects amid a stable economy, Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設) said in a survey released last week.
The figure rose 28.5 percent from the second quarter and more than doubled from a year earlier.
Continued economic expansion and an accommodative monetary policy lent support to the increase, according to the survey, which was conducted by National Chengchi University’s Taiwan Real Estate Research Center (台灣房地產中心).
Developers and builders were also encouraged by the government’s support for urban renewal projects and reverse mortgages, but ongoing volatility in global stock markets, and the trade row between the US and China sent negative messages, the survey said.
New housing prices were NT$253,000 per ping (3.3m2) nationwide, slipping 0.77 percent from three months earlier, the survey showed.
Compared with a year earlier, housing prices continued to decline in Taipei, but picked up elsewhere in the nation, the survey showed.
The 30-day sales rate fell 1.49 percentage points to 12.89 percent, while scope for bargaining rose by the same amount to 15.03 percent, it said.
Average prices for new housing projects in Taipei stood at NT$787,800 per ping and NT$383,700 per ping in New Taipei City, it said.
New housing rose 3.93 percent from three months earlier to NT$218,000 per ping in Taichung and rose 2.08 percent to NT$187,600 per ping in Tainan, it said.
Average prices dropped 8.28 percent quarterly to NT$194,000 per ping in Kaohsiung and fell by 6.41 percent to NT$219,700 per ping in Taoyuan and Hsinchu, it said.
Relatively small and affordable apartments continued to be the mainstream products as family sizes shrink, it said.
The decline in birthrate and the rising number of elderly people would shape housing products in the long term, the center said.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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