A recent survey indicates that early 60 percent of the nation's first-time home buyers have used government's preferential housing loans, organizers of the poll said yesterday.
The poll also showed that payments on housing loans accounts for 21.6 percent of a household's monthly income, declining by about 5 percent from a year earlier, said Chang Chin-oh (張金鶚), professor of Land Eco-nomics Department at National Chengchi University.
"This result may indicate a decreasing house-loan burden on home buyers," Chang said.
Respondents said they also are also optimistic about the rise in housing prices in the future
The survey was conducted between Sept. 1 and Sept. 15 by the Architecture and Building Re-search Institute under the Ministry of the Interior. The survey polled 1,968 people from nine counties. Almost 40 percent of home buyers expect housing prices to increase in the next 12 months, while 15 percent said they expect prices to fall.
Chen Yun-ru (陳韻如), manager of the Public Relations and Research Department at Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), agreed that the housing market has been recovering since the SARS epidemic eased after mid-June.
Chen said he expects the boom in real estate to continue on into next year if the government continues to provide the low-interest loans.
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