Presale and new housing projects slowed last month as developers and builders turned cautious after government agencies raised concerns about rising property prices and talked of measures to cool the market, the Chinese-language Housing Monthly (住展雜誌) said in a report released yesterday.
Presale and new housing projects in northern Taiwan totaled NT$93.4 billion (US$3.24 billion) last month, an 11 percent retreat compared with a monthly average of NT$105 billion in the first nine months of this year and 22 percent short of forecasts of NT$120 billion for the high season, it found.
Housing Monthly research manager Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) attributed the abrupt turn to talks of unfavorable policies by government officials to curb property prices, which have picked up noticeably in central and southern Taiwan.
The central bank met with major mortgage operators twice this month to warn against loose real-estate lending that could fuel property price hikes and threaten the stability of the financial system.
The bank said it would introduce selective credit controls if necessary to reverse the trend.
The Ministry of the Interior has announced plans to crack down on speculation of presale projects after media reports of irregular promotion campaigns.
Meanwhile, the Financial Supervisory Commission has asked banks to brace for inspections of their real-estate financing operations.
The slowdown is especially evident in Hsinchu County, where presale projects slumped 70 percent to NT$2.27 billion after local officials banned sales of presale projects that have not yet received building permits, it said, adding that the county earlier saw people waiting in line to buy such projects.
The phenomenon could be a marketing strategy to push up property prices, Ho said.
Presale and new housing projects amounted to NT$18.4 billion in Taipei last month, down 32.6 percent from the average in the first nine months, the report said.
Government officials are most sensitive about housing prices in the capital, where mortgage burdens take up more than 50 percent of household incomes, Ho said.
Presale and new housing projects dropped 7.5 percent to NT$40.1 billion in New Taipei City, from a monthly average of NT$43.3 billion in the previous nine months, it said.
Taoyuan bucked the trend, with presale launches and new housing projects rising 35 percent to more than NT$30 billion, it said.
Ho expects developers and builders to stay quiet and push back presale projects to next month to appease policymakers.
Things might return to normal after government officials drop the unfavorable rhetoric, he said.
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
PROJECTION: KGI Financial said that based on its foreign exchange exposure, a NT$0.1 increase in the New Taiwan dollar would negatively impact it by about NT$1.7 billion KGI Financial Holding Co (凱基金控) yesterday said its life insurance arm has increased hedging and adopted other moves to curb the impact of the local currency’s appreciation on its profitability. “It is difficult to accurately depict the hedging costs, which might vary from 7 percent to 40 percent in a single day,” KGI Life Insurance Co (凱基人壽) told an investors’ conference in Taipei. KGI Life, which underpinned 66 percent of the group’s total net income last year, has elevated hedging to 55 to 60 percent, while using a basket of currencies to manage currency volatility, the insurer said. As different
Taiwanese insurers are facing difficult questions about the damage of recent swings in the New Taiwan dollar. Regulators might have a partial solution: letting firms change how they calculate the value of foreign currency assets. The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is considering allowing insurers to use six-month average exchange rates when they calculate risk-based capital in their semiannual reports, a shift from the current system where insurers use exchange rates on the final day of reporting. The change could ease pressure on the US$1.2 trillion insurance sector, whose huge exposure to foreign assets came into the spotlight earlier this month after a