The government’s business climate monitor for the new property market in northern Taiwan last month flashed “yellow-blue” for the first time this year, as buying interest and supply both picked up on the back of improving sentiment and low interest rates, a report released yesterday by Chinese-language Housing Monthly (住展雜誌) showed.
The monthly business gauge listed the market at 33.2, 2.2 points higher from a month earlier, ending five straight months of “blue,” which reflects a sluggish market.
FINDING BOTTOM
“The latest data suggest the market might have bottomed out and is embarking on a slow but gradual recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Housing Monthly research manager Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said.
The sub-indices on new completed housing supply, prospective buyer numbers and price concessions showed positive movements, while advertising, presale project supply and transactions held steady, the report found.
Last month saw the entry of presale projects worth NT$60 billion (US$2 billion) in Taipei’s Xinyi (信義), Zhongcheng (中正) and Shilin (士林) districts, Ho said.
The planned residential complex in Xinyi features 152 apartment units of 21 to 58 ping (69.4m2 to 192m2) in a building with 22 floors aboveground and six basement floors.
Developers also launched new presale projects in New Taipei City’s Linkou (林口), Sanchong (三重) Sinjhuang (新莊) and Tucheng (土城) districts, it said, adding that there were also new projects in Taoyuan and Hsinchu.
Developers are more confident about rolling out new projects as the COVID-19 outbreak subsides in Taiwan, Ho said.
The record-low interest rate also helps drive money to the property market, he added.
BENEFICIAL TREND
A total of 1,100 units of newly completed housing last month joined the market, the highest this year, with complexes in New Taipei City’s Sindian (新店), Sanchong and Tamsui (淡水) districts expected to rake in more than NT$1.5 billion in sales each, the report said.
The trend benefits property agencies such as Hiyes International Co Ltd (海悅國際開發) and Top Scene Advertising Co (甲桂林廣告), it said.
Hiyes posted NT$213 million in revenue for last month, more than double what it posted for the same period a year earlier and representing a 23.3 percent spike from one month earlier, the company said in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday.
The presale housing project in Xinyi District, which might attract NT$7 billion in sales, allows Top Scene to rejoin the market in Taipei, Ho said.
Developers would become less willing to concede over selling prices as Taiwan on Sunday eases social distancing requirements, paving the way for a return to normalcy, he said.
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