Major property brokers reported a small monthly decline in housing transactions last month, but an annual drop of about 30 percent, dashing hopes of a high season, due to economic uncertainty and unfavorable legislation.
H&B Realty Co (住商不動產), Taiwan’s largest broker by the number of franchises, said deals last month declined 2.3 percent from November, which it blamed on an economic slowdown and interest rate hikes.
The decline was most evident in Taipei with a 10.9 percent drop, followed by New Taipei City, which fell 7.9 percent, and Taoyuan, which declined 5.7 percent, H&B Realty said.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
The housing market in central and southern Taiwan fared more resilient, it said.
Taichung logged a 0.8 percent monthly drop, while deals in Tainan and Kaohsiung gained 9.2 percent and 1.5 percent respectively, H&B Realty said.
“Buying interest remains weak overall, even though the monthly figure in Tainan has increased for the past three months,” H&B chief researcher Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.
Transactions in all six special municipalities slumped by double-digit percentages from a year earlier, Hsu said.
Transactions last year plummeted 46.1 percent annually in Kaohsiung, fell more than 30 percent in Taoyuan and Taipei, and retreated more than 20 percent in Tainan and Taichung, she said.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), Taiwan’s largest broker by the number of offices, said its transactions last month rose 2 percent from November, but fell 32 percent from a year earlier.
People turned hesitant about property purchases after major economic indicators slipped into the contraction zone, while the central bank signaled further interest rates hikes if inflation remains high, Evertrust Rehouse deputy research head Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said.
Unease deepened after the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee last month approved bills that ban the transfer of presale housing contracts and subjects legal entities to prior approval before they can buy real estate, Chen said.
The unfavorable macro-environment is why transactions last year likely fell from 2021 and could shrink further this year, Chen said.
Price corrections for presale contracts would occur once the proposed bans take effect, driving investors off the market or have them lock their capital for a long period, Evertrust said.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), Taiwan’s only listed broker, said that consideration periods became longer last month.
However, transactions of apartments priced NT$10 million to NT$25 million (US$325,648 to US$814,000) in Taipei held relatively stable, as well as those priced NT$10 million to NT$15 million in New Taipei City, Sinyi research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾進德) said.
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