A presale and new housing downturn in northern Taiwan is casting a long shadow as sales growth slows and supply mounts, the Chinese-language My Housing Monthly magazine said in a report yesterday.
Purchases of presale projects fell below NT$50 billion (US$1.68 billion) last month, although their number grew mildly from May, after the number of daily COVID-19 infections cases fell, the report said.
Fewer houses were completed last month, likely slowed by the virus outbreak, labor shortages and weakening sentiment, it said.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
“People now assign more importance to rising inflationary pressures, interest rate hikes and negative wealth induced by the stock rout, now that concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic have subdued,” My Housing Monthly research manager Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said in a statement.
“Rising supply and falling sales indicate selling pressures ahead when downside risks gain momentum,” he said.
Ho’s remarks came as the publication revealed its monthly climate monitor for the presale and new housing markets in northern Taiwan lost 2.1 points to 43.6 last month, the lowest this year.
While the sub-index on new presale projects edged up to 6.53 last month from 5.8 in May, reflecting improved confidence on the part of developers, the sub-index on sales dropped to 6.57 from 7.51, reflecting a downturn in purchasing interest, the magazine said.
Weekly transactions declined to two deals last month, from 2.5 deals in May, while reception sites served 25.5 teams of prospective buyers a week, compared with 25.6 teams one month earlier, it said.
The sub-index on price concessions widened slightly from 8.21 to 8.55, indicating that sellers were remaining firm about pricing, even though the macro-environment turned unfavorable, it said.
Spiking construction costs made developers unwilling to concede in the foreseeable future, Ho said.
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