The Ministry of Finance and state-run lenders are discussing measures to crack down on property speculation and the misuse of favorable lending terms intended for first-time home buyers and self-occupancy.
The ministry on Monday exchanged views with ranking officials from eight state-run banks. They are to meet again today to establish rules to prevent abuse of the stimulus program.
In August last year, the ministry refined its preferential program that offers people buying their first home a favorable interest rate of 1.775 percent, a five-year grace period and mortgages for up to 40 years. The interest subsidy lasts for three years for mortgages capped at NT$12 million (US$370,405).
Photo: CNA
The program has since helped the housing market emerge from a slowdown induced by the government’s selective credit controls, interest rate hikes, tightened income taxes on short-term property transactions and a ban on transfers of presale house purchase agreements.
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) on Monday reportedly urged state-run lenders to tighten reviews of mortgage applications to root out dummy buyers and request affidavits stating that those taking out a loan would not lease their house or use it for investment purposes.
Those found to have misused the program would have their favorable lending terms revoked and would have to return the interest subsidy, people from the state-run lenders said, adding that interest rates vary for borrowers depending on their credit profile.
Critics of the program say housing prices have increased at a rate that outweighs the benefits of the stimulus, and buyers, especially young people, could find it difficult to shoulder their mortgage once the interest subsidy and grace period expire.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said that the Executive Yuan would conduct a thorough review of the program next week.
For a mortgage of NT$10 million, monthly payments amount to NT$31,983 under favorable lending terms, H&B Business Group (住商不動產) research head Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.
The monthly payment would rise by NT$2,101 without the interest subsidy, a sizeable increase for average borrowers, Hsu said.
The average price of houses assessed by banks nationwide climbed to a new high of NT$13.55 million in the first quarter, suggesting a spike of NT$2.35 million from 2019, Chinatrust Real Estate Co (中信房屋) said yesterday, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (金融聯合徵信中心).
Kaohsiung reported the steepest advance of 30.1 percent, followed by Taoyuan’s 30 percent, as the two administrations have improved their infrastructure, Chinatrust said.
Kaohsiung reported largest number of home deals under NT$12 million between August last year and this month, as major tech firms are building new plants in the southern city, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
OUTLOOK: Pat Gelsinger said he did not expect the heavy AI infrastructure investments by the major cloud service providers to cause an AI bubble to burst soon Building a resilient energy supply chain is crucial for Taiwan to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology and grow its economy, former Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger said yesterday. Gelsinger, now a general partner at the US venture capital firm Playground Global LLC, was asked at a news conference in Taipei about his views on Taiwan’s hardware development and growing concern over an AI bubble. “Today, the greatest issue in Taiwan isn’t even in the software or in architecture. It is energy,” Gelsinger said. “You are not in the position to have a resilient energy supply chain, and that,
RSS