Property transactions last month plunged 47.5 percent year-on-year to 12,613 units in the nation’s six special municipalities, as an ongoing economic slowdown and the Lunar New Year holiday drove buyers to the sidelines, real-estate brokers said on Wednesday.
The volume was a 39.2 percent retreat from a month earlier, suggesting weak sentiment at the start of this year, said Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), the nation’s largest broker by number of offices.
“Property transfers in January slumped to the lowest level in nearly four years, dragged by economic uncertainty and unfavorable policies,” Evertrust Rehouse deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said, citing the ban on the resale of presale contracts, interest rate hikes, and a softening economic outlook at home and abroad.
Specifically, deals in New Taipei City and Kaohsiung plummeted 58.2 percent and 48.7 percent respectively, their worst showings in 13 years, Chen said, adding that the pace of decline exceeded 40 percent in Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung and Tainan.
The nation’s economy last quarter contracted 0.86 percent, reversing three previous quarters of growth, as exporters struggled with capacity and inventory adjustments that appear worse and longer than expected, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics data showed.
Major technology companies have provided conservative guidance for business this quarter and beyond, and have cut or postponed capital spending to cope with poor order visibility.
That scenario means the government and consumers have to assume the role of growth drivers.
The statistics agency is to update its GDP forecast later this month.
In addition, four interest rate hikes last year pushed mortgage burdens in December to a seven-year high and rates are likely to climb further as inflationary pressures remain higher than the central bank’s 2 percent target, Chen said.
Housing and construction loans in December advanced at the softest pace in three years to NT$9.38 trillion (US$315.6 billion) and NT$3.98 trillion respectively, suggesting tightening measures had achieved their intended effect, the central bank said.
The monetary policymaker has sought to induce a soft landing for house prices and urged caution in financial leveraging on concerns economic downside risks would intensify this year.
The timing of the Lunar New Year holiday also contributed to the property market’s poor performance, Evertrust Rehouse said.
The 10-day holiday fell entirely in January this year, while partly falling in February last year, and cut working days by 25 percent from a year earlier, Chen said.
People assigned more importance to grocery shopping, house cleaning and family reunions over the holiday, but might resume house hunting this month, Chen added.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS