Housing transactions would likely hold steady or grow mildly next year, from an estimated 7 percent gain this year, as excessive liquidity and economic recovery would continue to lend support, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said, but added that credit controls would likely slow the advance.
The number of transactions approximated 291,194 from January to last month and would total 322,000 to 324,000 units for the whole of this year, representing an annual increase of 7.1 percent, Evertrust general manager Yeh Ling-chi (葉凌棋) said, citing an internal survey.
The volume could hit 325,000 to 350,000 next year, suggesting a flat showing to a rise of up to 3 percent, as tightening measures would mildly discourage developers and builders, Yeh told a news conference in Taipei on Thursday.
“While continued low interest rates and excessive liquidity are favorable for the property market, tightened loan-to-value ratios would drive property investors and speculators to the sidelines,” he said.
The central bank’s credit controls, aimed at lowering lending for home purchases by companies and multiple home owners, unsold houses and land financing from 80 percent to 50 to 65 percent would be prudent and effective, Yeh said.
Additionally, the Ministry of Interior has banned transfers of unlicensed presale housing projects and the Financial Supervisory Commission has stepped up inspections of real-estate lending, he added.
All the measures are intended to curb property investment or speculation and would not affect first-home purchases or urban renewal projects, Yeh said.
Property investment, fueled by monetary easing to mitigate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, would have to produce more capital, Yeh said, adding that in the past few years, individuals have created shell companies to dodge heavy taxes on property gains.
Easy loans and low borrowing costs have driven developers to acquire land plots and launch new projects using land and unsold houses as collateral, Yeh said, adding that the practices could lead to a supply glut and subsequently to heavy selling pressure, if left unchecked.
Housing prices have this year climbed to record highs in most parts of Taiwan, especially in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Taichung, although some areas fail to report companies returning from China, Yeh said.
The stricter measures mean that developers would have to try to sell finished but unsold houses first, now that their access to capital is significantly limited, Yeh said.
That would slow the recovery in the real-estate market, but support its long-term health, Yeh said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
AI TALENT: No financial details were released about the deal, in which top Groq executives, including its CEO, would join Nvidia to help advance the technology Nvidia Corp has agreed to a licensing deal with artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Groq, furthering its investments in companies connected to the AI boom and gaining the right to add a new type of technology to its products. The world’s largest publicly traded company has paid for the right to use Groq’s technology and is to integrate its chip design into future products. Some of the start-up’s executives are leaving to join Nvidia to help with that effort, the companies said. Groq would continue as an independent company with a new chief executive, it said on Wednesday in a post on its Web
CHINA RIVAL: The chips are positioned to compete with Nvidia’s Hopper and Blackwell products and would enable clusters connecting more than 100,000 chips Moore Threads Technology Co (摩爾線程) introduced a new generation of chips aimed at reducing artificial intelligence (AI) developers’ dependence on Nvidia Corp’s hardware, just weeks after pulling off one of the most successful Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) in years. “These products will significantly enhance world-class computing speed and capabilities that all developers aspire to,” Moore Threads CEO Zhang Jianzhong (張建中), a former Nvidia executive, said on Saturday at a company event in Beijing. “We hope they can meet the needs of more developers in China so that you no longer need to wait for advanced foreign products.” Chinese chipmakers are in
POLICY REVERSAL: The decision to allow sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China came after years of tightening controls and has drawn objections among some Republicans US House Republicans are calling for arms-sale-style congressional oversight of artificial intelligence (AI) chip exports as US President Donald Trump’s administration moves to approve licenses for Nvidia Corp to ship its H200 processor to China. US Representative Brian Mast, the Republican chairman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, which oversees export controls, on Friday introduced a bill dubbed the AI Overwatch Act that would require the US Congress to be notified of AI chips sales to adversaries. Any processors equal to or higher in capabilities than Nvidia’s H20 would be subject to oversight, the draft bill says. Lawmakers would have
RSS