Taiwan’s major property brokers yesterday reported a mild increase in housing deals this month, attributable mainly to the government’s introduction of preferential lending terms for first-home purchases.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), Taiwan’s only listed broker, said the housing market’s performance this month was similar to July and last month, but gained 10 percent by volume compared with last year.
Singyi research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) attributed the year-on-year pickup to a low base last year.
Photo: CNA
“The third quarter proved not bad this time around, supported by real demand,” Tseng said, adding that people responded positively to the government’s introduction of ultra-low interest rates of 1.775 percent for first-home purchases.
The favorable lending terms also include a five-year grace period, a loan cap of NT$10 million (US$309,904) and mortgage periods of up to 30 years, significantly lowering the threshold for home ownership, Tseng said.
Specifically, houses priced from NT$10 million to NT$15 million gained noticeable popularity, accounting for 25 percent of deals, the analyst said.
Apartments valued between NT$30 million and NT$50 million in Taipei were also well received, whereas houses of NT$10 million to NT$20 million were the mainstream in New Taipei City, Tseng said.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), Taiwan’s largest broker by number of offices, said it observed a small increase in housing deals across Taiwan, as people grew accustomed to policy measures the government adopted to cool the market.
The absence of new credit controls made by the central bank on Thursday last week allowed people to breathe a sigh of relief and speed up purchasing plans, Evertrust Rehouse deputy research head Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said.
People with relocation and asset allocation needs also took action after housing prices failed to show corrections for several quarters, Chen said.
H&B Realty Co (住商不動產), the nation’s top broker by number of franchises, said the market displayed better visibility compared with the two previous months and preferential lending terms played an encouraging role.
This was most evident for the two-bedroom apartments in northern and southern Taiwan, H&B Realty research chief Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said, adding that offices with rental prospects also received close attention.
Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said it did not detect cautious sentiment thus far, though the presidential and legislative elections are drawing near.
It is too early to conclude that political uncertainty does not matter at this time, Great Home head researcher Mandy Lang (郎美囡) said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS