Developers and builders last quarter launched NT$458.6 billion (US$14.24 billlion) in presale and new housing projects at record-high prices across the nation while sales rates slowed, a survey by Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設) found yesterday.
That represented an increase of 57.7 percent from the second quarter when builders postponed product launches amid concern over spiking COVID-19 infections.
Compared with a year earlier, the figure rose 35.2 percent, the quarterly survey showed.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Asking prices gained 2.99 percent on average to NT$472,300 per ping (3.3m2) nationwide, propelled by higher land, labor and building material costs, the survey showed.
Whether the uptrend is sustainable is a question, as people turn increasingly conservative amid high inflation, monetary tightening and other economic uncertainty.
The price tags are much higher in Taipei at NT$1.04 million per ping and at NT$529,200 per ping in New Taipei City, the survey showed.
Asking prices reached NT$496,600 per ping in Hsinchu County and Hsinchu City, rising 21.25 percent to become the third-most expensive in Taiwan, it said.
Presale and new housing prices grew 4.2 percent to NT$439,900 per ping in Taichung, 16.33 percent to NT$331,100 in Tainan and 6.52 percent to NT$325,000 in Kaohsiung.
In addition, developers and builders grew less flexible about price concessions, which dropped by 0.81 percentage points to 8.12 percent, the survey showed, with the room for bargaining smallest in Hsinchu at 5.44 percent and largest in Taoyuan at 9.49 percent.
The firm attitude reflected confidence on the part of sellers, which slowed transactions, with the average 30-day sales rate weakening 2.44 percentage points to 11.6 percent, the survey said.
Taoyuan had the lowest 30-day sales rate of 9.21 percent, although it improved 0.92 percent from three months earlier, it said.
The sales rate was highest in Hsinchu at 15.63 percent, despite a sharp decline of 13.97 percentage points from the preceding quarter.
Sales rates tumbled 8.53 percentage points to 13.56 percent in Tainan, but gained 1.84 percentage points to 12.09 percent in Kaohsiung.
The figures reflected a cautious attitude among prospective buyers, and the property boom fueled by local technology firms’ investment plans might have plateaued, it said.
In the first three quarters of the year, the market for presale and new housing projects put up a stronger performance compared with the same period last year, it said.
By contrast, the market for existing homes fared weaker, as transactions in the first nine months slipped into negative territory.
STEADY: Prices are to rebound following inventory rebuilding demand, TrendForce said, with Samsung Electronics Co further trimming capacity as it slashes DDR4 lines The contract prices of DRAM chips are to rise by as much as 18 percent sequentially this quarter — the first price upticks in about eight quarters — driven mainly by inventory rebuilding demand for DRAM chips used in mobile devices and PCs, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) projected yesterday. The price rebound is led by a quarterly increase of mobile DRAM chips, which are to climb between 13 percent and 18 percent quarter-on-quarter this quarter, which has not been seen since the fourth quarter of 2021, the Taipei-based market researcher predicted. Likewise, the price of mainstream PC DDR4 DRAM is expected to bounce
SOLID FOUNDATION: Given its decades of expertise in megatronics, manufacturing and robotics, Japan has the wherewithal to create its own AI, Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp plans to help build an artificial intelligence (AI) tech-related ecosystem in Japan to meet demand in a country eager to gain an edge in this emerging technology. The US company will seek to partner with Japanese research organizations, companies and start-ups to build factories for AI, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday during opening remarks in a meeting with Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura. The company is to set up an AI research laboratory, and invest in local start-ups and educate the public on using AI, Huang said. Huang earlier this week met with Japanese Prime
A Hong Kong court postponed a court hearing on troubled Chinese property developer Evergrande Group’s (恆大集團) winding-up petition scheduled for yesterday until Jan. 29. Evergrande is trying to win support from its creditors for a plan to restructure more than US$300 billion in debt to stave off liquidation. The company’s lawyer told the court it was requesting an adjournment to “refine” its new debt restructuring plan. The Hong Kong High Court has postponed the hearing over Evergrande’s potential liquidation several times. Judge Linda Chan (陳靜芬) had said in October that yesterday’s hearing would be the last before a decision is handed down. Chan
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) is among a field of “very formidable” competitors to Nvidia Corp in the race to produce the best artificial intelligence (AI) chips, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday. Huawei, Intel Corp and an expanding group of semiconductor start-ups pose a stiff challenge to Nvidia’s dominant position in the market for AI accelerators, Huang told reporters in Singapore. Shenzhen-based Huawei has grown into China’s chip tech champion and returned to the spotlight this year with an advanced made-in-China smartphone processor. “We have a lot of competitors, in China and outside China,” Huang said. “Most of our competitors