Presale and newly completed house prices last quarter picked up 18.1 percent on average in northern Taiwan, but the uptrend might come to an end next year if sales continue to stall, property researcher My Housing Monthly said in a report.
“This segment of the property market has seen a tumultuous year, but has held firm so far, despite unfavorable twists sprouting almost every month,” the Chinese-language publication’s research chief Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said, referring to interest rate hikes, punitive taxes on short-term property trading, selective credit controls and bans on preorder transfers.
Building material price hikes, labor shortages and a lack of selling pressure have prompted developers to adopt a bold pricing strategy, but a turnabout might be inevitable if sales rates disappoint for an extended period, Ho said, citing a noticeable gain in housing supply in the second half of the year.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Presale housing projects in Taipei averaged NT$1.06 million (US$33,246) per ping (3.3m2) during the July-to-September period, up 4.2 percent from three months earlier and 12.7 percent from a year earlier, the publication’s report showed.
The price hikes in the capital were broad-based, with presale projects in second-tier Wanhua District (萬華) for the first time commanding more than NT$1 million per ping and more than NT$700,000 per ping in Wenshan District (文山), Ho said.
Neighboring New Taipei City saw presale projects climbing 3.1 percent sequentially and 10.4 percent from a year earlier to a new peak of NT$460,000 per ping, Ho said, adding that presale prices have made records for the past four straight quarters.
Developers now demand more than NT$600,000 per ping for projects in Jhonghe (中和), making it the second-most expensive administrative district in New Taipei City after Yonghe (永和) and ahead of Banciao (板橋), Ho said.
Developers in Taoyuan assigned more importance to affordability in hopes of facilitating deals and therefore priced projects at NT$309,000 per ping, a mild 2 percent increase from the previous quarter, but a 19.8 percent spike from a year earlier, it said.
Presale projects in Hsinchu averaged NT$357,000 per ping, growing 7.9 percent from three months earlier and surging 44.5 percent from a year earlier, as its proximity to the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) attracted buying interest, it said.
It would be impossible for housing prices to rise forever and ongoing economic uncertainty might slow the upturn this quarter, triggering a price correction next year amid tepid sales, Ho said.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,