Prices for presale and new homes in northern Taiwan in the first quarter climbed 12.1 percent year-on-year, accelerating from an 8.7 percent increase in the fourth quarter following spiking construction costs and imbalanced supply and demand, the Chinese-language Housing Monthly (住展雜誌) said yesterday.
The spike in prices came even though developers and builders had launched fewer projects, amid unfavorable policy measures at home and geopolitical tensions abroad, Housing Monthly research manager Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said.
“The data suggest a continued boom, although greater uncertainty looms ahead,” Ho said, referring to further credit controls in areas with rapidly rising housing prices.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office
Prices for presale and new homes have received support from persistent labor shortages and steep increases in the price of building materials, Ho said, adding that increased inflation is expected across the supply chain following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
Prices for presale and new homes in Taipei averaged NT$973,000 (US$33,312) per ping (3.2m2), a 2.3 percent rise from three months earlier and a 7.9 percent increase from a year earlier, Housing Monthly’s report found.
Sale prices are soon to surpass NT$1 million per ping throughout the city, as buyers become more accustomed to such prices in districts outside central Taipei, such as Neihu (內湖), Nangang (南港) and Beitou (北投), Ho said.
Previously, such asking prices were only seen for homes in Daan (大安), Xinyi (信義), Zhongcheng (中正) and Songshan (松山) districts.
Prices for new homes in New Taipei City climbed 2.3 percent to NT$437,000 per ping from the fourth quarter, while prices in Taoyuan rose 4.4 percent to NT$287,000 per ping, Housing Monthly said.
Buyers are willing to give up trying to afford Taipei and settle in New Taipei City or Taoyuan due to the relative affordability of the housing and the improving infrastructure there, it added.
Housing prices in Hsinchu climbed 11 percent quarter-on-quarter and 27.4 percent year-on-year to NT$302,000 per ping, as it overtook Taoyuan to become Taiwan’s third most expensive place to live, it said.
Residents of Hsinchu who work for major tech firms have relatively high incomes, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has increased demand for electronics used in remote working and distance learning.
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