The nation’s major property brokers last month saw transactions rise from the same period last year, but they held steady from August due to a lack of market direction.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), the nation’s largest broker by number of offices, yesterday reported a 2 percent monthly increase in property transfers nationwide as the market emerged from Ghost Month.
Property transfers increased 14 percent from a year earlier, Evertrust said.
“The data reaffirmed a slow, but gradual recovery. However, unfavorable factors, such as the US-China trade row, linger,” Evertrust spokesman Jay Hsieh (謝志傑) said in a statement.
Differences between sellers and buyers over housing values deepened as sellers grew increasingly inflexible after government reports showed local companies returning from China at a faster pace and scale, Hsieh said.
Buyers have little interest in paying more, due to concerns over slowing global trade, while political uncertainty at home would weaken the economy and property prices, he said.
Transactions grew 3 to 23 percent in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung from a year earlier, Evertrust data showed.
Sellers should show more flexibility if they want to facilitate transactions, as selling pressure might intensify going forward due to heavy supply, Hsieh said.
As of July, the number of use permits rose to the third-highest in 11 years, while construction licenses climbed to the highest in as many years, Evertrust general manager Yeh Ling-chi (葉凌棋) said.
That means more houses would join the market in the next few years, despite the stalling birthrate and stagnating wages, he said.
H&B Realty Co (住商不動產), Taiwan’s largest property broker by number of franchises, said its data showed that transactions last month were unchanged from August, but posted a 23 percent annual gain.
Taoyuan reported the steepest year-on-year increase at 44 percent, followed by Tainan’s 32 percent, Kaohsiung’s 30.6 percent, Taipei’s 29.8 percent, New Taipei City’s 16.4 percent and Taichung’s 15.4 percent, H&B data showed.
The figures reflect continued property fund flows to southern Taiwan, where prices are relatively affordable and infrastructure has improved, H&B research director Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.
Alphabet Inc’s Google has announced it has purchased a plot of land in Tainan to build its second data center in Taiwan after establishing its first facility in Changhua County.
The southward migration of property funds might continue, backed by convenient transportation, Home Realty Co (大家房屋) research head Mandy Lang (郎美囡) said.
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