Housing transactions in the six special municipalities totaled 23,588 units last month, up 19.3 percent from a month earlier, propelled by pent-up demand and excessive liquidity, brokers said, citing government data.
Transactions rose 2.8 percent on an annual basis and represented the strongest showing since January 2016, when the government raised property taxes to stem short-term speculation, they said.
“Housing transactions have switched back to growth mode for two consecutive months as people who had delayed purchases because of the virus outbreak rejoined the market,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) spokesman Jay Hsieh (謝志傑) said yesterday.
The COVID-19 situation stabilized in May, allowing prospective buyers to resume house hunting while postponing closings, Hsieh said.
Transactions surged 26.5 percent month-on-month in Taipei to 2,892 units — the municipality with the largest increase — while rising 23.6 percent in Kaohsiung to 3,634 units and 20.3 percent in Taoyuan to 4,615 units, data from the local governments showed.
Transactions rose 19.4 percent month-on-month in New Taipei City to 6,142 units, while rising 17 percent in Tainan to 2,246 units and 11.2 percent in Taichung to 3,649 units, data from the local governments showed.
Transactions for presale and existing markets have heated up, aided by real demand and excessive liquidity, Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.
The pandemic has prompted global central banks to cut interest rates to record lows to ward off a credit crunch and to ease the financial burden of firms and households, with some idle money flowing into the property market in search of better yields, market observers have said.
For the first seven months of this year, combined housing transactions in the six special municipalities declined minus-1.2 percent from a year earlier to 131,539 units as fallout from the nation’s virus situation eased, brokers said.
However, people should not be unduly optimistic, Hsieh said, adding that in the second quarter, the US economy contracted 32.9 percent from a year earlier, while Taiwan’s GDP shrank 0.73 percent.
“The economic data suggest that it will be difficult for the world to return to normalcy with infections spiking in many countries. Buyers and sellers should remain cautious moving forward,” Hsieh 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