Despite the government’s efforts to curb soaring housing prices, the residential property index climbed to its highest in two years last month following a rebound in the fourth quarter of last year, a Chinese-language Housing Monthly report showed.
The monthly headline indicator score rose 15 points to 50 last month, showing a healthy “green” light, after flashing “yellow-blue” in February because of holiday factors. The increase was second only to that recorded in March 2008, the report said.
The results echoed the Ministry of the Interior’s quarterly report released last month showing that the local property market had fully recovered by the fourth quarter of last year, with the indicator flashing “green” for the first time since early 2007.
“Entering into a traditionally high season, many real estate indexes posted ‘above-average’ performance last month following the Lunar New Year holidays in February,” Chen Yun-ru (陳韻如), chief executive of the monthly’s Web site, said in the report.
Sub-indexes rose across the board last month, with transactions growing at double the figure recorded in the previous month and the number of newly built properties put up for sale rising to 1,928 from 496 in February, the report showed.
Chen said that the increase in supply of nearly 2,000 properties was concentrated in Taipei County’s Tamsui and Taoyuan County’s Bade City and Taoyuan City, accounting for 62 percent of the total, while Taipei City saw only small growth, further propping up prices.
The government’s efforts to discourage rising home prices by increasing supply, tightening credit and adjusting property taxes seemed not very effective, Chen said, noting that the root cause of rising home prices still lies in excess liquidity in the market.
Although these measures had sidelined some property investors earlier last month, growth momentum was being built again toward the end of the month, with construction companies and developers regaining confidence about the market, she added.
A separate survey by 1111 Job Bank released yesterday showed that nearly 65 percent of salaried workers were not planning on purchasing homes this year, chiefly because of rocketing property prices.
Nearly 70 percent of respondents said they were discouraged from buying homes because of extremely high prices, followed by 46.1 percent who cited unstable salaries and 45.8 percent who lacked down payments, it said. Respondents could cite multiple reasons for not purchasing homes.
Henry Ho (何啟聖), the job bank’s public relations director, called on the government to expand subsidy packages for disadvantaged people who wish to buy a home, saying that up to 87 percent of homeowners polled have home mortgages, which accounted for 38 percent of their salaries.
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