The nation’s rent index last month climbed to a record 106.77, suggesting a pickup of 2.07 percent on average from a year earlier, Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) said yesterday, citing government data.
The increase was fastest in southern Taiwan, with a 2.36 percent advance, followed by 2.1 percent in northern Taiwan, 1.92 percent in eastern Taiwan and 1.84 percent in central Taiwan, Sinyi said.
Tenants might feel the pinch more acutely than the readings have suggested, as the uptick added to the overall financial burden caused by COVID-19 restrictions weighing on economic activity and household incomes, Sinyi research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Rising property prices and wages in the past few years have helped drive up rent rates, while a stable housing supply also lent support, Tseng said.
The government has been offering rent subsidies to disadvantaged tenants to ease financial pressure, he said.
Although rents have continued to increase, they remain moderate compared with mortgage payments, Tseng said.
The phenomenon could cause people to prefer renting over buying, especially if the central bank raises interest rates on mortgages above 2 percent, he said.
An interest rate hike in December could lift interest rates to 2 percent, Tseng said, adding that landlords would most likely pass the extra financial burden on to tenants.
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
RSS