The value of reverse mortgages grew at a slower pace last quarter as the central bank’s rate hikes increased interest payments for such loans, the Financial Supervisory Commission said last week.
Reverse mortgages allow homeowners to borrow money against the value of their homes without having to move out, with monthly interest payments linked to the central bank’s policy rates.
Most local banks offer reverse mortgages to people over the age of 60, the commission said.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
Last quarter, reverse mortgages rose 3.64 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$36.2 billion, the third-lowest quarterly increase on record, the commission said.
Two of the 15 banks providing reverse mortgages reported a lower sum than the previous quarter, it said.
The commission attributed the slower momentum to the central bank implementing three consecutive rate hikes from March.
The number of reverse mortgage applications in Taipei was flat last quarter, commission data showed.
The number of reverse mortgage applications in Taipei and New Taipei City totaled 3,273 at the end of last month, or 50.96 percent of the total, down from 51.48 percent at the end of last year, while applications in Yunlin County, Chiayi County and Tainan increased to 8.23 percent, up from 7.82 percent over the same period, the commission said.
The commission said the increase in the number of applications in southern Taiwan reflected a recent uptick in housing prices in the region, as well as an increase in consumer interest.
Ryanair, Transavia, Volotea and other low-cost airlines are feeling the financial pain from high jet fuel prices as a result of the Middle East war and are cutting flights. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has taken a huge chunk of oil supplies off the market, sending the price of jet fuel soaring and triggering fears of shortages that could force airlines to cancel flights. Airlines are not waiting for a lack of supplies to react. “Travel alert: Airlines are cutting thousands of flights right now,” Travel Therapy host Karen Schaler said in an Instagram reel this past weekend.
MANAGING RISKS: Taiwan has secured LNG sufficient to cover 95 percent of electricity demand for next month, UBS said, describing the government’s approach as proactive UBS Group AG has raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 8 percent, up from 6.9 percent previously, and said expansion could reach as high as 8.6 percent if external energy shocks are avoided. The upgrade reflects a stronger-than-expected first-quarter performance and sustained momentum in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven exports, which UBS said are providing a firm foundation for growth despite geopolitical and energy risks. Taiwan’s GDP expanded 13.69 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the fastest growth since the second quarter of 1987, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Thursday. On a seasonally
The Fair Trade Commission’s (FTC) ongoing review of Grab Holdings Ltd’s US$600 million acquisition of Foodpanda Taiwan’s operations, announced on March 23, has taken on fresh urgency as industry experts warn that the transaction could embed significant Chinese cybersecurity vulnerabilities into Taiwan’s digital infrastructure through Grab’s deep ties to autonomous-driving firm WeRide (文遠知行). Less than 16 months after the FTC blocked Uber Eats’ direct attempt to acquire Foodpanda Taiwan — citing potential combined market shares of 80 to 90 percent — the emergence of Grab as the buyer has prompted questions about whether the same competitive harm is simply being rerouted
The list of Asian stocks that benefit from business partnership with Nvidia Corp is getting longer, as the region further integrates into the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant’s business ecosystem. Just in the past week, South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, Taiwan’s Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), as well as China’s Huizhou Desay SV Automotive Co (德賽西威) and Pateo Connect Technology Shanghai Corp (博泰車聯) have become the latest to rally on news of tie-ups, supply-chain participation or product collaboration with the US chip designer. Asian suppliers account for about 90 percent of Nvidia’s production costs, up from about 65 percent last year, data compiled
RSS