Taiwan’s housing boom lost momentum this month when major property brokers reported double-digit percentage declines in deals after the central bank asked lenders to slow mortgage operations to avoid an overconcentration of real-estate lending.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) transactions shrank 23 percent from one month earlier as people took a summer vacation or shunned closing deals during Ghost Month, Evertrust deputy research head Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said.
The slowdown was due to an apparent cash crunch as banks decline or slow mortgage applications to prevent more money from flowing to real-estate properties, Chen said.
Photo: CNA
As of June 30, real-estate lending accounted for 37.4 percent of the banking system’s loans, close to the record of 37.9 percent, the central bank said last week, asking lenders to draw up quantitative control measures by Friday next week detailing how they would limit mortgages to help prevent an overconcentration of real-estate loans.
The central bank is likely to adopt more credit controls next month if voluntary tightening proves ineffective, Chen said.
Transactions dropped 8 percent compared with a year earlier as the low base effect also faded, Chen said.
The government in August last year introduced favorable lending terms, including interest subsidies and a five-year grace period, prompting an influx of first-home buyers.
Chinatrust Real Estate Co (中信房屋) sales this month tumbled 16.4 percent from last month, while flagging 2.5 percent from a year earlier, a Chinatrust broker said.
Chinatrust attributed the retreat mainly to the central bank’s quantitative controls, although the Ghost Month also dampened interest.
Fewer people displayed interest in house-hunting this month, as mortgage applications took longer and many sought help from the Financial Supervisory Commission, Chinatrust said.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said he is to meet with the central bank next week to make sure the quantitative controls measures would not affect first-home purchases.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) said its outlets observed a 20.2 percent slump in housing deals this month, or a 15.9 percent decrease from a year earlier.
Several lenders have voluntarily put a halt to new mortgage operations on concerns that their house loans might approach the statutory limit of 30 percent due to house price hikes.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors