The nation’s housing affordability deteriorated in the first quarter of this year, as house prices gained 0.11 percent to 9.72 times of household income and mortgage burdens took out 41.19 percent of income, up 0.94 percentage points from three months earlier, Ministry of the Interior data showed on Wednesday.
The data ran counter to observations by policymakers that the housing market has cooled due to a series of selective credit controls and interest rate hikes.
The house price to income ratio climbed to the second-highest level in history next only to 9.8 times seen in the third quarter of last year, and meant families have to save all they earn for 9.72 consecutive years to own a house.
Photo: Hsu Yi-Ping, Taipei Times
The challenge is much bigger in Taipei, where home prices equal 15.22 times household income, 12.77 times in New Taipei City and 11.34 times in Taichung, the data showed.
At the same time, mortgage burdens constituted 64.5 percent of household income in the capital, 54.13 percent in New Taipei City and 48.08 percent in Taichung.
The government defines mortgage burdens of 30 percent as reasonable, burdens of 30 to 40 percent as relatively high, and burdens of more than 50 percent as excessively high.
By the measure, only houses in Pingtung County, Keelung, and Chaiyi city and county met the “reasonable” test, since mortgage burdens elsewhere fell between 30.96 percent and 64.5 percent, the ministry’s data showed.
Mortgages in Kinmen County were at 35.45 percent and they stood at 34.42 percent in Penghu County, the ministry said.
The mortgage burden was 39.7 percent in Nantou County and 37.68 percent in Hualien County, it said.
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