The housing market in Taipei City showed a double-digit rebound last month after declining to an 18-month low one month earlier as cautious sentiment eased somewhat, the latest data from the Taipei City Government showed yesterday.
Transactions, however, remained low compared with the level before the central bank adopted selective credit controls in June to cool the property market, the data showed.
Residential real estate transactions in Taipei City totaled 4,501 units last month, rising 17 percent from 3,850 units in August, the statistics said. The latest figure still marked a 19.18 percent drop from an average of 5,569 units in the first half.
The rebound is expected to last into the current quarter, the traditional high season, real estate analysts said.
Lee Jain-ming (李健銘), a researcher at Sinyi Realty Co (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed real estate agency, said uncertainty about the market outlook continued, but confidence recovered slightly as the central bank did not introduce fresh tightening measures at its board meeting last month.
The monetary policymaker raised key interest rates by 12.5 basis points for the second time this year on Sept. 30 and urged local lenders to enhance risk management on land financing.
In June, the central bank asked banks to tighten credit for second-home loan applications, lowered the loan-to-value ratio and canceled grace periods on principal payments for housing units in Taipei City and 10 areas in Taipei County.
Taipei City alone accounted for more than 50 percent of residential real estate transactions nationwide in the first six months, according to the Ministry of the Interior’s data.
“The cautious sentiment may ease further for the rest of the year while housing prices continue to consolidate,” Lee said.
Many Taiwanese get married in the fourth quarter and buy apartments on their own or with help from parents to start a new family.
Ni Tzu-jen (倪子仁), spokesman for the Chinese-language Housing Monthly (住展雜誌), said the central bank’s tightening measures have slowed housing transactions, but have proven ineffective in curbing their prices.
The interest rate hikes add slightly more than NT$100 (US$3.20) per month for every NT$1 million borrowed, while the call to limit financing is little more than moral preaching, Ni said.
“Nothing short of sharp interest rate hikes can prevent funds from flowing into the property market,” Ni said. “But I don’t think the central bank will take drastic steps, as they may hamper the economic recovery.”
Ken Shih (施耕宇), financial analyst from BlackRock Investment Taiwan Ltd, said Taiwan’s mortgage market remains healthy in light of the current non-performing loan ratio ranging from 0.5 percent to 1 percent.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS