New housing projects launched this month in northern Taiwan are likely to total NT$36 billion (US$1.22 billion), down 68 percent annually to the worst level in 20 years, as a spike in domestic COVID-19 infections chills buying interest, My Housing Monthly said yesterday.
The decline is smaller than at the height of the 2003-2004 SARS outbreak, partly because many civil servants are quarantined at home, stalling building permit reviews, the property publication said.
“This time around, the virus outbreak appears to be more effective than credit controls and other unfavorable policy measures at cooling the property market,” head researcher Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said, adding that people have generally put house hunting on hold since the tally of daily new COVID-19 cases surpassed 80,000 earlier this month.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
The situation is worse than during the level 3 COVID-19 alert in May last year when new housing projects in Taipei and New Taipei City alone exceeded NT$110 billion, Ho said, adding that people are assigning greater importance to disease prevention.
Developers and builders who are bold enough to launch projects are having difficulty getting permits because so many officials are infected or have had contact with someone who is, Ho said.
This month, Keelung has no new projects, while projects in Yilan fell 18 percent to only NT$900 million, it said.
New housing projects in New Taipei City shrank 80 percent to NT$10.3 billion, with the projects concentrated in less popular districts such as Sindian (新店), Linkou (林口) and Sansia (三峽), it said.
Opting to sit out the outbreak, builders are postponing launches in the most popular districts such as Banciao (板橋), Yonghe (永和) and Jhonghe (中和), it said.
New housing projects declined 72 percent to NT$8.2 billion in Taoyuan, while falling 90 percent to NT$1.1 billion in Hsinchu, where tight supply continues to push up selling prices, it added.
Taipei proved to be the only exception, with new housing projects increasing 7.6 percent to NT$15.5 billion, as developers press ahead with introducing small apartments, which have found solid support from real demand, Ho said.
Ho said the market is likely to rally next quarter as the number of COVID-19 cases dwindles, in line with trajectories in Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore.
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