Housing transactions last year hit a seven-year high, as the market recovered steadily from the introduction of a property gains tax in 2016, government data showed on Tuesday.
Data released by the Ministry of the Interior showed housing transactions recovering from a low of 245,396 units in 2016 to 326,589 units last year.
The recovery had been gradual, but resilient, despite the COVID-19 pandemic last year and renewed credit controls imposed by the central bank early last month, Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) said in a news release.
Photo: Cheng I-hwa, Bloomberg
Transactions last month rose to a 60-month high of 35,000 units, reflecting a hot market in November, as it takes about a month to process related paperwork, Sinyi research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾進德) said.
The central bank reiterated that the latest credit controls would not affect people seeking to buy their first home, but it remains to be seen how the market adapts to the tightening, analysts said.
The latest government data also showed that the number of inherited properties rose 2.5 percent year-on-year to 59,109 units last year, the highest on record, while the number of gifted houses edged down 0.4 percent to 43,759 units, the first decline since 2016.
Outstanding mortgages last month increased 8.5 percent from a year earlier to NT$8.04 trillion (US$283.3 billion), central bank data showed on Tuesday.
The pace of increase was the fastest in 14 years, the bank said, attributing it to the high sales season ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday next month.
Outstanding loans for construction and land financing soared 17.52 percent year-on-year to NT$2.46 trillion last month, the fastest increase since September 2011, the bank’s data showed.
Seasonality aside, the government’s encouragement of urban renewal projects contributed to the pickup, as credit controls do not apply to urban renewal projects, the bank said.
Tseng said that given the time lag, this month’s mortgage and property transaction data would be a better indication of the effects of credit controls.
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