Taiwan’s housing prices in the third quarter of last year picked up 7.43 percent from a year earlier, with the increase most evident in Tainan and Taichung, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.
The national housing price index was 114.83 for the July-to-September period, a sequential gain of 2.15 percent compared with three months earlier, data on the ministry’s Web site showed.
An improving economy at home and abroad and record-low interest rates lent support to home purchasing interest, the ministry said.
Photo: Hung Jui-chin, Taipei Times
House loans climbed 9.38 percent year-on-year to a new high of NT$8.54 trillion (US$308.41 billion) in September, while interest rates for new mortgages dropped to a new low of 1.346 percent among the five major state-run lenders, it said.
Construction and land financing surged 16.29 percent to NT$2.7 trillion, although the pace of increase was the slowest since November 2020, it said.
A high rate of vaccination against COVID-19 and a low number of infections gave people confidence to resume normal activity, the ministry said.
Revenue at construction and civil engineering companies grew 6.51 percent from the second quarter, when housing transactions shrank 21.82 percent to 73,734 units due to a level 3 COVID-19 alert, it said.
Housing price gains among the six special municipalities were the fastest in Tainan, with an annual rise of 11.34 percent, as property funds flowed to the area after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) announced plans to build plants featuring its latest technology processes there.
Taichung was second with a 10.16 percent increase in house prices, thanks to infrastructure enhancements and its central location in Taiwan, it said.
Global monetary easing and inflation expectations helped push up home prices, the ministry said, adding that rises in presale projects set the tone.
Taoyuan reported an 8.14 percent increase, followed by Kaohsiung’s 7.81 percent, it said.
Prices in Kaohsiung might rise after TSMC confirmed its intentions to add new plants there.
Prices moved up 6.03 percent in Taipei and 5.46 percent in New Taipei City as the cities benefited from the property fever, despite their relative unaffordability, the ministry said.
Ongoing price hikes have prompted policymakers to tighten property tax and financing terms, to little avail thus far.
Central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) has said that housing prices might rise further and the government aims to prevent funds from flowing into the market.
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