The central bank yesterday said that average property prices in certain areas of New Taipei City (新北市) and Taoyuan County, where land developers have started new construction projects, may fall further this year, citing its selective control measures.
The central bank made the comments in its annual financial stability report which was issued yesterday. The report gives the bank’s view of the performance of the financial system over the past year as well as listing any risks faced.
“The transaction volume of Taiwan’s property market last year marked its lowest level in 10 years,” Su Dao-min (蘇導民), deputy head of the central bank’s banking examination department, said at a press conference.
Transaction volume — measured by the number of registrations of building ownership transfers — totaled 330,000 units last year, down 8.84 percent from a year earlier, central bank data showed.
Su attributed the decline to the real-price registration system for property transactions launched by the government in August last year, which led to many potential buyers adopting a wait-and-see attitude.
The central bank’s selective control measures also played a role in helping slow speculative transactions and maintaining stability in the housing market, Su added.
However, average housing prices in many urban areas remained high, which meant prospective buyers face a hard time purchasing a house of their own, the bank said in the report.
The central bank said property prices would likely face some downward pressure in the near future because of the impact of an increasing number of vacant properties.
The number of vacant houses stood at 1.43 million last year, up 1.13 percent, or 16,000 households, from a year earlier, the report’s data showed.
Prices for properties in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), Sansia District (三峽) and Tamsui District (淡水), as well as certain areas in Taoyuan County, may face heavier downward pressure, the bank said.
Last year was largely characterized by sluggish economic growth and rising household debt levels, the report said.
Domestic and international uncertainty means the bank remains concerned about economic momentum, especially after the government cut its GDP growth forecast to 2.4 percent this year.
However, the nation’s financial sector should remain stable this year on the back of structural improvements over the past year, the report said.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS