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.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS