The Ministry of the Interior announced yesterday that the nation would start registration of real-estate transaction prices on Aug. 1, a move the government views as a first step in enhancing transparency in the real-estate market.
The announcement came after the legislature passed amendments to three property laws — the Real Estate Broking Management Act (不動產經紀業管理條例), the Land Administration Agent Act (地政士法) and the Equalization of Land Rights Act (平均地權條例) — in December last year aiming to curb the nation’s runaway real-estate prices.
Beginning in August, land administration agents, real-estate buyers and real-estate brokers must register the value of property transactions within 30 days of closing a deal, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.
If the parties involved fail to do so within the required 30 days, “land administration agents and real-estate brokers will be subject to a fine of between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 (US$1,000 to US$5,000),” Radio Taiwan International (RTI) quoted Deputy Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) as saying at a press conference.
“Real-estate buyers who fail to register transaction prices within 30 days, will be given a 15-day grace period” before facing a fine, Chien added.
After the registration of real-estate transaction prices, the ministry hopes the disclosure of information about real-estate transactions will begin to take place in October at the earliest, which will help promote transparency in the market, ease transaction disputes and expedite deal negotiations, according to Chien.
Department of Land Administration Director Hsiao Fu-tao (蕭輔導) pledged the administration would conduct inspections on a regular basis on more than 5 percent of all registrations every year, to help deter people from registering inaccurate transaction prices, RTI reported.
At this stage, registered property prices cannot be used as a basis for levying taxes until after enough price data have been collected, relevant laws have been revised and complementary measures put in place, according to real-estate brokers.
However, the registration of actual transaction prices would help the government move toward using market prices as a basis when adjusting its land-value assessments and compensation evaluations, the brokers said.
Separately, the Ministry of Finance yesterday announced details of 12 land development projects set to be open for bidding in the near future.
Their total market prices are expected to reach NT$5.08 billion (US$169.58 million).
The winning bidders of the 12 projects will be able to develop the land by granting “superficies” rights, the ministry’s National Property Administration said in a press release.
Two of these projects are located in Taipei City and five in New Taipei City (新北市). The other properties are located throughout the nation.
The base prices for the superficies right of these pieces of land would be set at between 30 percent and 50 percent of their market prices to attract more bidders, the release said.
The bidding for the two projects in Taipei City will open on July 31, with both projects for residential use, the administration said.
Additional reporting by Amy Su
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
RSS