Presale projects and new houses for sale in the coming fall sales season could exceed NT$200 billion (US$6.28 billion) in northern Taiwan, representing a 16.6 percent increase from the same time last year, as developers seek to cash in on preferential lending terms for first-home buyers, My Housing Monthly (住展雜誌) said yesterday.
The volume might hit NT$212.2 billion during this fall season, which would be the second highest in eight years, despite recent bans on transfers of presale house purchase agreements and an ongoing economic slowdown, it said.
The housing market has probably stabilized after digesting assorted unfavorable policy measures, the magazine’s research manager Chen Tsai-chi (成采錡) said.
Photo: CNA
Rather, the new preferential lending terms for first-home buyers, which keep interest rates on new mortgages at 1.775 percent, should be able to motivate people with real demand, Chen said.
Taipei would make the biggest contribution with presale projects and new houses sized at NT$78.8 billion, most being concentrated in Songshan District (松山) and Nangkang District (南港), the magazine said.
New Taipei City ranks second with NT$65.6 billion worth of new housing, it said, pointing out that Sanchong District (三重) alone underpins 60 percent, or about NT$40 billion.
The districts of Sinjhuang (新莊) and Tamsui (淡水) would make up NT$10 billion each, as the two locations gain popularity due to affordable house prices and improving infrastructure facilities, it said.
New housing at Taoyuan totals NT$45.8 billion with 50 percent of the projects located in Jhongli District (中壢), it found
The Hsinchu area is to see nearly NT$20 billion of presale projects and new houses that target people eyeing relatively large apartments, it said.
Keelung and Yilan would have NT$1.51 billion and NT$495 million of new housing aimed at local residents, it said.
The fall season starts on Sept. 28 and lasts through October.
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