New home mortgages from five major state-run banks last month reached the highest level for March, while the average interest rate on new housing loans hit a record low, central bank data released on Thursday showed.
Total new mortgages granted by Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) increased 15.83 percent month-on-month and 15.5 percent year-on-year to NT$53.69 billion (US$1.78 billion) last month, the data showed.
For the first quarter, total new mortgages extended by the banks amounted to NT$138.3 billion, down 16.6 percent from the previous quarter, but up 5.95 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
The increase in mortgages issued last month reflected recovering demand in the domestic housing market after the Lunar New Year holiday.
It was also in line with the latest housing transaction data released by the six special municipalities, which show that transactions rose 9.9 percent month-on-month and 7.8 percent year-on-year to 19,824 units last month, with Taoyuan posting the highest monthly growth of 20.7 percent and the biggest annual increase of 36.6 percent, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said, citing local government figures.
The increase was also buoyed by demand for home purchases and the completion of new construction projects in some areas, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported last week, citing central bank Economic Research Department Deputy Director Wu Yih-Jiuan (吳懿娟).
In the first quarter, the total number of housing transactions in the six special municipalities increased 6.8 percent to 53,364 units from a year earlier, Evertrust said earlier this month.
Although the COVID-19 outbreak did not significantly affect the housing market in the first quarter, the pandemic might start to affect transactions from this month, Wu said.
Despite rising mortgage demand, the five banks’ average mortgage rate last month fell to 1.593 percent per year, which was down from the previous month’s 1.611 percent and the lowest on record, the central bank data showed.
The central bank attributed the rate decrease to lenders competing to offer preferential rates for quality customers. The central bank on March 19 cut its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, which also helped push mortgage rates last month to below 1.6 percent, it said.
Separately, average lending rates at the five banks last month fell to 1.291 percent, down 0.143 percentage points from the previous month, due to falling interest rates of various loans, the central bank said.
RECORD BUDGET: TSMC does plan to raise its proposed capital expenditure a lot, and could benefit if Intel outsources more of its production to foundries, analysts said Intel Corp’s earnings conference call on Thursday is expected to clarify the US semiconductor giant’s outsourcing production plans, which would be crucial regarding Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) performance, analysts said. “TSMC stands to benefit if Intel outsources more of its fabrication to foundries,” SinoPac Securities Investment Service Corp (永豐投顧) analysts said in a note on Friday. Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) was more cautious, saying that Intel’s contribution initially would be limited, but its outsourcing plans would still highlight TSMC’s leadership in technology, it added. “Intel will continue to manufacture server or high-end central processing units [CPUs], which have higher
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday announced it would give incentive bonuses totaling NT$1.7 billion (US$59.7 million) to its employees and those at the firm’s major subsidiaries, after the smartphone chip supplier’s revenue hit US$10 billion last year. This is the biggest incentive bonus the Hsinchu-based handset chip designer has ever distributed in its 23-year history. About 17,000 full-time employees of MediaTek and five of its subsidiaries, including Richtek Technology Corp (立錡科技) and Airoha Technology Corp (絡達科技), would receive a “red envelope” of NT$100,000 each, the company said. “Surpassing US$10 billion is just the beginning. We will continue to [grow] on this basis,” MediaTek
TO SPUR REVENUE: The contract chipmaker expects its profit to grow 15 percent this year, outpacing the foundry industry’s projected advance of about 10 percent Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its projected capital spending for this year by 62 percent, a new high, in an attempt to satisfy customer demand for advanced technologies in the production of central processing units, high-performance-computing (HPC) devices and 5G applications. After investing US$17.24 billion last year, TSMC this year plans to spend US$25 billion to US$28 billion on manufacturing equipment and new facilities, including a fab in the US. About 80 percent of the budget would be allocated for developing advanced technologies including 3, 5 and 7-nanometer technologies, the company said. The larger-than-expected capital spending prompted speculation
Norway’s oil and gas reserves have made it one of the world’s wealthiest countries, but its dreams for deep-sea discovery now center on something different. This time, Oslo is looking for a leading role in mining copper, zinc and other metals found on the seabed and in hot demand in green technologies. The country could license companies for deep-sea mining as early as 2023, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said, potentially placing it among the first countries to harvest seabed metals for electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and solar farms. However, that could also place it on the front line of
RSS