New mortgages granted by five state-run banks last month reached the highest level since 2016, on the back of robust demand in the property market throughout the second half of last year, central bank data released on Friday showed.
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) totaled NT$68.337 billion (US$2.41 billion), up 17.92 percent month-on-month and 13.13 percent year-on-year, the data showed.
This was the highest monthly issuance of mortgages since 2016, when the current integrated house and land sales tax was implemented, the data showed.
Photo: CNA
For the whole of last year, total new mortgages by the banks totaled NT$629.497 billion, up 6.23 percent from NT$592.553 billion in 2019, the highest in more than a decade.
The growing demand in the property market has driven up housing prices and triggered speculative transactions, especially in the presale property market, which last month prompted the government to introduce new measures to curb speculative transactions.
The new measures include stricter requirements on loans for real-estate buyers and developers, the disclosure of the actual-price registration system for property transactions, restrictions on option agreements for presale housing units, as well as stricter risk control over land and construction financing loans, and industrial land loans to prevent hoarding and speculation.
December is the traditional peak month for property transactions, the central bank said, adding that the measures to curb speculation would in a few months begin to affect the market.
The high number of new mortgages came on the back of a strong housing market in the six special municipalities, it said.
In Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, housing transactions totaled 26,225 last month, up 6.6 percent month-on-month and 17.5 percent year-on-year, concluding a strong showing in the past two quarters.
Housing transactions in the six cities totaled 250,175 last year, the highest in seven years and up 7.82 percent from 2019, Ministry of the Interior data compiled by the Taiwan Realty Enterprise Group (台灣房屋集團) showed.
Despite rising mortgage demand, the five banks’ average mortgage rate fell to 1.356 percent per year last month, down from 1.361 percent in November last year and 1.608 percent a year earlier, the central bank data showed.
Separately, the five banks’ average lending rates climbed to 1.291 percent last month, up 0.035 percentage points from 1.256 percent in November, the central bank said, attributing the uptick to higher costs for corporate loans.
Capital expenditure loans totaled NT$123.691 billion last month, the highest in 10 years, due to funding demand for corporate investment, and an increase in land and construction loans, the data showed.
The average capital expenditure lending rate was 1.739 percent last month, it showed.
Excluding government loans, the rate would be 1.316 percent, up 0.046 percentage points from 1.270 percent in November, the central bank said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last