Willingness to buy property last month fell to its lowest level since September 2016, due to interest rate hikes and a downbeat economic outlook, a survey by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) showed yesterday.
About 73 percent of 19,183 respondents said that now is not a favorable time to buy a new home, up from 70 percent a month earlier.
The survey was conducted in the first week of this month.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
“Consumers’ interest in buying property slid for five months in a row, from April to August, but registered a slight rise last month. However, it retreated this month, possibly because of a central bank rate hike of 12.5 basis points,” Cathay Financial said in a report.
The index of property purchase sentiment tallied minus-59.5 this month, indicating that the percentage of those who are not interested in buying a home was 59.5 percent higher than those who were interested, Cathay Financial said.
About 48 percent of those polled said it was also not a good time to sell property, up from 47 percent a month earlier, it said.
“The rate hikes seem to have affected both buyers and sellers,” Cathay Financial said.
Consumer confidence in Taiwan’s economy continued sliding this month, with 70 percent of respondents saying the economy was worse now than it was six months ago, and 58 percent excepting a slowdown over the next six months, the survey showed.
Survey respondents expected Taiwan’s economy to grow 2.65 percent this year, down from 2.74 percent a month earlier, the survey showed.
Meanwhile, 92 percent forecast Taiwan’s inflation rate to surpass 2 percent this year, among whom 66 percent predicted it would rise past 3 percent, the survey showed.
About 62 percent of respondents forecast their salary to remain unchanged over the next six months, flat from a month earlier, while 17 percent expected a raise, down from 19.5 percent a month earlier, it showed.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS