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.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS