The value of land in Taiwan as assessed by local governments rose an average of 8.65 percent last year from a year earlier, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday.
In terms of individual lots, the land across from the Taipei Main Station where the Shin Kong Life Tower stands is the most expensive in the country, with an assessed value of about NT$1.21 million (US$39,950) per square meter, the ministry said.
The ministry releases a land value survey at the end of every year based on data collected from local governments to provide an indicator of Taiwan’s real-estate market conditions. Actual transaction prices are generally higher than the government’s assessed land value, which is used to calculate the land value increment tax.
The ministry said yesterday that the government-assessed value averages 83.67 percent of actual -market value across Taiwan.
According to ministry statistics, assessed land values in Hsinchu City rose 23.49 percent from a year earlier, the largest increase anywhere in Taiwan.
Land values also rose considerably in Greater Taichung (by 15.7 percent), New Taipei City (新北市) (by 12.19 percent), Yilan County (by 10.72 percent) and Taipei (by 9.87 percent).
Elsewhere, the assessed land value rose 3.87 percent from a year earlier in Greater Tainan, 4.05 percent in Greater Kaohsiung and 7.84 percent in Taoyuan.
Meanwhile, the ministry also provided data on the residential real-estate market.
It said home transactions in November last year rose almost 10 percent from a month earlier to 27,403 units, rebounding from a recent slump caused by the implementation of the luxury tax aimed at curbing speculation in the real--estate -market, the ministry said.
However, the November figure was down 26 percent from a year earlier, it said. A luxury tax went into effect in June, with a 15 percent sales tax imposed on second homes sold within one year of purchase and a 10 percent sales tax on properties sold between one and two years after they were purchased.
In 2010, an average of 34,000 homes were sold each month, but owing to the impact of the luxury tax, monthly transactions in the second half of last year fell below 30,000 units, ranging between 25,000 units and 28,000 units, the ministry said.
In November last year, home transaction volume in Taipei rose 5 percent from October, but fell 34 percent from a year earlier, while volume in New Taipei City was up 6 percent from October, but down 44 percent year-on-year, the statistics showed.
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