Taiwanese hold a neutral view of the property market next quarter, as cautious sentiment lingers amid economic uncertainty, but housing prices have found support in inflation, an Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) survey released yesterday showed.
Almost 60 percent of respondents thought it would be unwise to join the market in the next six months, while nearly 40 percent said it would be better to wait until 2025, suggesting an extended slowdown in transactions, Evertrust research manager Daniel Chen (陳賜傑) said, citing the company’s quarterly survey.
Thirty-four percent said house prices would increase, while 31 percent expected price corrections, with high inflation believed to become a new norm, Chen said.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Respondents were conservative even though 79 percent said that the recent introduction of favorable lending terms for first-home buyers was helpful in bolstering people’s interest in buying property, he said.
“People by-and-large need more time to digest economic signals at home and abroad,” Chen said, referring to poor exports, capital flight, monetary tightening in advanced economies and international oil price increases.
Evertrust general manager Yeh Ling-chi (葉凌棋) said that while it is difficult to make projections at this point, things could grow more fluid next quarter before Taiwan elects a new president and lawmakers in January.
“Political uncertainty always warrants caution,” Yeh said, adding that Evertrust Rehouse, Taiwan’s largest broker by number of offices, stood by its earlier forecast that housing deals this year would shrink 8 to 11 percent to 283,000 to 293,000 units, despite a better-than-expected third quarter.
A low base accounts for the improvement in comparison values this quarter, Yeh added.
House prices grew a moderate 2 to 4.9 percent in major cities this quarter, as the mentality that real estate is the best defense against inflation supported prices, he said.
Expectations of price declines have not been realized and some buyers decided not to stay on the sidelines any longer, Yeh added.
Of the survey’s respondents, 83 percent said they supported the government’s plan to raise house taxes for people who own multiple homes next year, but they were concerned that it would prompt landlords to pass their extra tax burden on to their tenants.
Small and open, Taiwan’s economy is vulnerable to external influences, and the US’ dim economic outlook for next year would inevitably weigh on Taiwan’s exports, the nation’s main growth driver, Yeh said.
That explains why the public is generally not confident that the nation’s economy will recover next quarter, he said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS