The nation’s property price index, compiled by Taiwan Realty (台灣房屋) based on the closed prices of its property transactions, rose 6.42 percent to 116 points in the first quarter of this year from the previous quarter’s 109.
Among the nation’s six metropolitan areas, the sub-index for Taoyuan County saw the biggest quarterly jump of 8.33 percent to 117 points last quarter, followed by a 7.56 percent rise in Taipei City to 128 points, the survey’s head researcher Hsu Chih-chiang (徐之強) told a media briefing yesterday.
The survey found that the unit housing price in the Greater Hsinchu area saw the biggest quarterly rise of 14 percent to an average of NT$175,800 (US$5,588) per ping last quarter, followed by Taoyuan County, where property prices climbed nearly 12 percent to NT$117,200 per ping, said Hsu, who is also an economics professor at National Central University.
Property prices in Taipei City and Taipei County remained the most expensive, averaging NT$427,300 and NT$213,900 per ping respectively last quarter. On the other hand, average prices in Kaohsiung City declined 3.7 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$99,300 per ping, according to the survey.
“With property prices in Taipei remaining at high levels, more and more home buyers are seeking cheaper properties outside Taipei, boosting the property markets in both Taipei and Taoyuan counties,” Taiwan Realty CEO Kevin Peng (彭培業) told the briefing.
Among the four types of property covered in the survey, the average prices for one-bedroom apartments nationwide, except for those in Taoyuan County, slid by between 6 percent and 36 percent.
The average price of one-bedroom apartments in Taoyuan County, on the contrary, increased 82 percent to NT$112,900 per ping last quarter, the survey found.
“The key is the release of new supplies. In Taoyuan, new supplies [of one-bedroom apartments] helped bolster their prices,” Peng said, adding that a lack of new supply elsewhere easily dragged down the prices of old one-bedroom apartments.”
Peng added that the property boom seen in the first quarter would have been heated if the government had not initiated cooling measures.
The realtor also released statistics showing that property prices nationwide remained flat last month, although the volume of transactions picked up.
Property prices in Taipei County saw the biggest monthly jump of 4.5 percent last month, followed by Hsinchu County with 2 percent and Taoyuan County’s 0.84 percent, the company said.
In terms of volume, property transactions in Taipei County also posted the largest jump, at 15.3 percent, followed by Greater Hsinchu area’s 8.9 percent and Taoyuan County’s 5.2 percent.
The government’s affordable housing project in Linkou (林口), in particular, helped boost property prices in the area, the firms aid.
In related news, Evertrust Group’s (永慶集團) statistics showed that the vacancy rate for office rentals in Neihu District (內湖) dropped 2.3 percentage points to 10.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, while that in Nangang District (南港) slid 2.5 percentage points to 15.7 percent — signs of corporate expansion on the back of improving economic fundamentals, the firm said.
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