Major property brokers last month saw rebounds of between 3 percent and 20 percent in existing home transactions from September deals, driven largely by first-time homebuyers and relocation needs, although the showing was still soft compared with the same period last year, companies said.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed broker, reported a 20 percent increase in deals, which it attributed to the traditional high season in the current quarter and stability in the TAIEX that it said had helped calm public unease about an economic slowdown.
The rebound was most evident in the greater Taipei area, where transactions picked up 17 percent in Taipei and 28 percent in New Taipei City, Sinyi said, citing its own data.
Housing prices in Taipei averaged NT$632,000 per ping (3.3m2) last month, slightly lower than NT$646,000 per ping in September and NT$650,000 per ping a year earlier, Sinyi data showed.
“Price concessions on the part of sellers helped facilitate transactions,” Sinyi researcher Tseng Chin-der (增進德) said in a report.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), the nation’s largest broker by number of offices, saw increases of 1 percent to 18 percent in different districts last month, backed by real demand, company spokesman Andy Huang (黃舒衛) said in a statement.
First-time ownership and relocation needs drove 60 percent of deals in Taipei’s central districts and 74 percent in suburban areas, the Evertrust report said.
Self–occupancy accounted for 69 percent of deals last month, the report found.
“The nation’s poor economic standing appears to have had a very limited bearing on real demand-backed housing purchases,” Huang said.
Real demand refers to buyers interested in units they will live in themselves as opposed to those purchased as investments.
Asset allocations account for 20 percent of property transactions last month, Evertrust said.
Not all investment-driven deals are linked to speculation, but most are aimed at utilizing idle funds, given a lack of investment channels in Taiwan, Evertrust said.
Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) saw transactions grow an average of 3.2 percent last month, as the market regained modest confidence amid talks of stimulus measures to boost consumer confidence and the economy as a whole.
The central bank in September fired the first shot by cutting interest rates by 12.5 basis points in the hope of encourage investment and other economic activity at lower borrowing costs.
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