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.
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