Housing transactions last month totaled 21,083 units in the nation’s six special municipalities, marking a 4.4 percent increase from a month earlier and a 14.8 percent rise from a year ago, as favorable lending terms the government introduced in August motivated buyers, real-estate brokers said on Monday.
On a monthly basis, Taipei reported the biggest advance of 20 percent to 2,562 units, followed by New Taipei City’s 11.1 percent rise to 5,304 units, Taoyuan’s 10.8 percent increase to 4,023 units and Taichung’s 9 percent rise to 4,464 units, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said, citing data from local land administration agencies.
Tainan and Kaohsiung bucked the uptrend, shrinking 22 and 9.3 percent to 1,958 and 2,772 units respectively, H&B said.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
All six special municipalities reported increases in transactions on an annual basis, led by Taipei’s 30.8 percent growth and New Taipei City’s 28.7 percent rise, the data showed.
Although the government introduced a wave of selective credit controls and unfavorable policy measures to cool the local property market, it also adopted a rent subsidy for people on low income and preferential interest rates for first-home purchases, H&B chief researcher Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.
As a result, the housing market has started to stabilize on the back of real demand, especially for relatively affordable and small apartments, Hsu said.
Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) shared similar observations, adding that ultra-low interest rates of 1.775 percent and a loan capped at NT$10 million (US$309,329) enable first-home buyers to eye properties in Taipei and New Taipei City’s central locations.
That explained why transactions in and around Taipei improved noticeably, Great Home research head Mandy Lang (郎美囡) said, adding that the extension of mortgages from 20 years to 30 years under the favorable lending program also helped.
However, the pickup in transactions last month might not reverse a downturn in the overall housing market for the whole of this year, although it would mitigate the pace of decline, Lang said.
In the first three quarters of this year, cumulative deals totaled 168,165 in the six special municipalities, 10.3 percent fewer than the same period last year, data showed.
Full-year deals in the six regions would have difficulty exceeding the 280,000 mark, Lang said.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) advised against premature optimism toward the local housing market, as the central bank could return to tightening measures after a pause last month.
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
Luxury fashion powerhouse Prada SpA has acknowledged the ancient Indian roots of its new sandal design after the debut of the open-toe footwear sparked a furor among Indian artisans and politicians thousands of miles from the catwalk in Italy. Images from Prada’s fashion show in Milan last weekend showed models wearing leather sandals with a braided design that resembled handmade Kolhapuri slippers with designs dating back to the 12th century. A wave of criticism in the media and from lawmakers followed over the Italian brand’s lack of public acknowledgement of the Indian sandal design, which is named after a city in the
The US overtaking China as Taiwan’s top export destination could boost industrial development and wage growth, given the US is a high-income economy, an economist said yesterday. However, Taiwan still needs to diversify its export markets due to the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s administration, said Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University. Taiwan’s exports soared to a record US$51.74 billion last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and continued orders, with information and communication technology (ICT) and audio/video products leading all sectors. The US reclaimed its position as Taiwan’s top export market, accounting for
INVESTOR RESILIENCE? An analyst said that despite near-term pressures, foreign investors tend to view NT dollar strength as a positive signal for valuation multiples Morgan Stanley has flagged a potential 10 percent revenue decline for Taiwan’s tech hardware sector this year, as a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar begins to dent the earnings power of major exporters. In what appears to be the first such warning from a major foreign brokerage, the US investment bank said the currency’s strength — fueled by foreign capital inflows and expectations of US interest rate cuts — is compressing profit margins for manufacturers with heavy exposure to US dollar-denominated revenues. The local currency has surged about 10 percent against the greenback over the past quarter and yesterday breached
RSS