The number of foreclosed properties rose to more than 12,000 units nationwide last month, more than double the monthly average of 6,000 in the first three quarters of last year, a San Sui Asset Management Corp (山水資產) executive said yesterday.
A minimum 10 percent drop in market prices, along with job losses and the downturn in the economy, had probably forced the 12,237 property owners to default on loans, since 92 percent of their properties were low-priced and located in Taoyuan or areas further south, San Sui chief executive Arling Cho (卓訓麟) said in a telephone call.
Last month’s foreclosures were a 20 percent increase over January’s 10,221 units. The 10,000 unit level was breached in December for the first time since the SARS outbreak in 2003, when a monthly average of 15,000 units was reached, Cho said, adding that there were no signs of a slowdown.
Cho expected the number of properties being auctioned to continue to climb, with a possible peak in the third or fourth quarter of this year when the domestic real-estate market begins to bottom out.
More potential buyers began to show up after the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to 1.25 percent last month, although closing prices of auctioned properties remained steady, he said.
“Record-low interest rates have succeeded in enticing home shoppers in the [second-tier] auction and second-hand property markets,” Cho said.
Jeffrey Huang (黃增福), an assistant manager at Evertrust Rehouse Co’s (永慶房屋) research and development department, said low interest rates had boosted sales of second-hand properties last month by up to 30 percent month-on-month.
Evertrust Rehouse statistics showed that property sales in Taipei County and Taichung City increased by 30 percent last month from January, compared with a 10 percent growth in Taipei City and Kaohsiung City.
“For the first time since September, we finally saw a sales growth [last month],” Huang said by phone.
Thirty percent to 40 percent of buyers last month in Taipei County and Taichung City were first-time buyers who could only afford low-priced properties averaging NT$5 million (US$142,584), he said.
Many were taking advantage of the government’s NT$3 million preferential mortgage at an interest rate of 1.325 percent.
Amid increasing sales, property prices, however, flattened.
Prices averaged NT$281,000 per ping (3.3m²) in Taipei City, NT$148,000 per ping in Taipei County, NT$79,000 in Taichung City and NT$84,000 in Kaohsiung City last month, Evertrust Rehouse’s statistics showed.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite