Presale housing projects totaled NT$351.53 billion (US$11.57 billion) in northern Taiwan in the first half of the year, a decrease of 19 percent from the same period last year, as developers and builders seek to reduce inventory and refrain from expansion, despite an improving economy, the Chinese-language Housing Monthly said yesterday.
“By slowing the launches of presale projects, builders and developers aim to ease price correction pressures on their newly completed buildings,” Housing Monthly (住展雜誌) research manager Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said by telephone.
There remains a price gap of up to 15 percent between buyers and sellers, but the supply side is unwilling to concede, as the market for existing homes has seen a marked rebound this year and authorities have supported builders, Ho said.
In Taipei, where authorities impose holding costs on owners of more than one home, has reduced the so-called “property hoarding tax” from 3.6 percent to 1.5 percent.
However, the cut would not help spur buyers’ interest, but would allow builders and developers to save on tax, making them less willing to lower prices, Ho said.
The decline is broad-based except for Yilan County, where presale projects increased 37.5 percent year-on-year to NT$12.49 billion in the first six months, as housing prices held relatively firm and people are moving there, Ho said.
Keelung saw the steepest fall, at 78 percent, the magazine said.
Drastic swings in the volume of presale housing projects are common in Keelung, due to its relatively small market, Ho said.
The situation was less gloomy in and around Taipei.
Presale projects dropped 8.4 percent to NT$84.87 billion in Taipei in the first half and fell 7.5 percent to NT$158.89 billion in New Taipei City, the report said.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
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
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
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
RSS