The presale and new housing market last quarter held steady from three months earlier by measure of projects for sale, showing a fractional 0.9 percent growth to NT$328 billion (US$11.13 billion), a Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設) survey showed on Wednesday.
Sales rates slowed somewhat, but selling prices rose nationwide as developers and builders passed rising construction costs on to buyers.
This segment of the property market continued to perform well, judging by housing prices, the survey showed.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Developers and builders launched 231 projects offering 20,559 units that could generate NT$328 billion in sales, representing a 13.5 percent increase compared with a year earlier, it said.
The increase in revenue came even though the number of projects and units declined 6.1 percent and 2 percent from their respective levels three months earlier, it said.
That meant the supply side refrained from active project launches, but raised prices to reflect spikes in labor and building material costs, it said.
Some developers pushed back their release schedules after government agencies introduced a spate of unfavorable measures to cool the market, it said.
The Ministry of the Interior is sponsoring a bill to impose stiff fines on dishonest marketing practices, and the central bank is suggesting further credit controls after hiking interest rates by 0.25 percentage points in March.
Potential transaction prices gained 13.66 percent to NT$432,500 per ping (3.3m2) nationwide, while leeway for price concessions was virtually flat at 7.71 percent, it said.
The 30-day sales rate was relatively stable at 15.2 percent, down 1.86 percentage points from the previously quarter, it said.
Price increases are most evident in Hsinchu County at 19.2 percent, followed by Taoyuan at 18.45 percent, and Kaohsiung at 16.37 percent, it said.
Prices for presale housing projects in Taichung and Tainan both rose 11 percent, while advancing 8.6 percent in Taipei and 8.52 percent in New Taipei City.
Average selling prices in Taipei reached NT$1.06 million per ping, a mark previously limited to popular locations, it said, adding that uncertainty is gathering pace this quarter due to heightening economic downside risks.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last