Although the real estate market has yet to bottom out, several domestic banks are gearing up to compete for new mortgage business.
One day after the Cabinet said it would release another NT$200 billion (US$5.92 billion) in preferential mortgage loans with an annual interest rate as low as 1.325 percent, DBS Bank (星展銀行) yesterday launched mortgage loans with a two-year fixed rate of 1.88 percent.
After that period, the interest will float at 1.12 percent above the time deposit index, which would be 1.88 percent at the current level.
“That will be the lowest interest rate available on the market for up to two years,” DBS general manager Jerry Chen (陳亮丞) said, adding that the program would run until June 30.
With more than NT$10 billion available for mortgages, DBS plans to grant mortgages with a loan-to -value ratio of up to 80 percent.
The bank said its mortgages would average 1.88 percent interest in the first three years — lower than mortgages at state-run banks and foreign banks.
Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) offers mortgages with an initial 1.833 percent interest rate in the first six months before rising to between 2.049 percent and 2.249 percent, while Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) and Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行) grants mortgages with an initial minimum 1.5 percent rate for six months before climbing to between 1.99 percent and 2.25 percent.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
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