Taoyuan County housing prices could fall 6 percent this year as uncertainty increases over the fate of the Taoyuan Aerotropolis (桃園航空城) project, a multibillion-dollar project to develop commercial areas near the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, U-Trust Realty Co (有巢氏) said yesterday.
Home prices in the county, which is set to be upgraded into a special municipality on Thursday, have increased sharply in recent years, driving investors to take profits now that mayor-elect Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) has indicated plans to review the project, U-Trust spokesman Liu Ping-yao (劉炳耀) said.
“Trading prices have contracted 5 percent in Taoyuan this year as investors flee the market,” Liu said, citing data from the government’s real-price registration Web site for the first 10 months.
That makes Taoyuan the only municipality with a correction in home prices, as costs in other municipalities continue to climb — comparing houses built within the past five years, Liu said.
Home prices averaged NT$10.65 million (US$337,200) in Taoyuan County this year, down from NT$11.31 million last year, Liu said, adding that property speculation appears to have eased.
Builders and developers sited many projects in the county in recent years in a bid to take advantage of the construction on the MRT system linking Taoyuan County with the Taipei Railway Station and planned Aerotropolis.
The property fever might re-emerge if the new mayor presses ahead with the project, which might attract new funding to the county, Liu added.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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