The housing price index rose 1.2 percent quarterly and 3.87 percent annually to 108.17 in the fourth quarter of last year, a report released yesterday by the Ministry of the Interior showed.
Housing prices have increased quarterly for nine consecutive quarters and risen annually for 10 quarters in a row, the ministry’s data showed.
As housing prices have increased nationwide for three straight quarters, the central bank tightened lending terms in December last year and last month.
Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance is pushing property tax revisions that would define “short-term” transactions as anything under five years, up from two years.
Under the revisions, transfers of presale projects and equities would be taxed at the same rates as properties.
Tainan reported the steepest increase in housing prices at 7.44 percent from a year earlier and 2.39 percent from a quarter earlier, the ministry said.
Property funding has flowed to Tainan in the past few years after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the sole chip supplier of Apple Inc’s iPhone, made known its plans to build foundries for its newest products there.
Housing prices in Taichung increased 5.61 percent annually and 1.4 percent quarterly, the second-steepest increase in the nation, ministry data showed.
Taoyuan placed third with an annual housing price increase of 4.58 percent, followed by Kaohsiung’s 3.15 percent rise, Taipei’s 2.83 percent gain, and New Taipei City’s 2.57 percent increase, the data showed.
The ministry said that GDP growth, which hit 5.09 percent in the fourth quarter, contributed to housing price increases, while low interest rates for mortgages, which averaged 1.36 percent among the five major state-run lenders, also lent support.
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