Real-estate transactions last month in the nation’s six special municipalities totaled 19,242 units, a lackluster 1.5 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, despite the traditional high season, according to statistics compiled by separate local governments and released on Tuesday last week.
For the whole of last year, property deals in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung rose 11.85 percent to 203,879 units, reversing three years of decline, the data showed.
Transactions fell to 182,287 units in 2016, the lowest for any year since record-keeping began in 1991.
Overall transactions nationwide also hit a record low of 245,000 units in 2016. The six municipalities account for about 75 percent of the nation’s total residential and commercial property transactions.
While last year’s figures demonstrate a noticeable improvement in sentiment despite lingering expectations of price falls, the pace of recovery lost considerable momentum in the second half of the year, with an average increase of 4.7 percent, tapering off from the first half’s 20.7 percent growth, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) spokesman Jay Hsieh (謝志傑) said on Tuesday.
This is because sellers grew less willing to concede, while prospective buyers refused to pay more, Hsieh said, adding that the stalemate might slow transactions and derail the course of recovery.
“Unaffordability and oversupply give buyers the upper hand,” Hsieh said.
Taipei posted the strongest numbers with 2,553 deals last month, an improvement of 17.2 percent from a year earlier, thanks to the completion of presale housing projects, the data showed.
Real-estate transactions in Taichung showed an 11.88 percent gain with 3,927 deals, while Tainan saw an 8.7 percent increase with 2,040 deals, the data showed.
Deals in New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Kaohiung fell between 4.3 percent and 8.8 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
Price correction pressures are to deepen, as more presale housing projects are due to enter the market this year, Evertrust said.
Sellers should cut prices and exit the market sooner to save funding costs, Hsieh said.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) is more optimistic, saying a market rebound usually lasts a few years and that healthy economic fundamentals would lend further support.
The nation’s economy is undergoing a stable expansion as interest rates stay low — therefore, more buyers are likely to join the market this year, allowing transactions to climb higher, Sinyi researcher Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS