Presale and new housing prices increased 7.13 percent last quarter from three months earlier, but sales rates fell 22.69 percent, a survey released on Thursday last week by Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設) showed, suggesting that price hikes and the central bank’s credit controls pushed prospective buyers to the sidelines.
“The central bank’s credit controls appear to be effective, but more time is necessary to see if they lead to price corrections,” the company said.
Developers and builders rolled out 25,068 new housing units from July to last month that could bring in NT$568.2 billion (US$17.7 billion) in revenue, the survey showed.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
The number of units fell 9.3 percent from three months earlier, while the possible sales marked a small 1.9 percent advance, the company said.
An ongoing artificial intelligence boom has bolstered the nation’s exports, and housing demand in Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung has benefited from major local tech firms’ capacity expansions, it said.
Kaohsiung has bolstered its infrastructure to welcome Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), and local developers have built new apartment buildings for the chipmakers’ employees, it said.
Against that backdrop, developers set prices for presale and new houses nationwide at NT$568,100 per ping (3.3m2), an increase of 7.13 percent from the previous quarter, it said.
House prices in New Taipei City rose the most at 11.65 percent to NT$686,800 per ping, followed by an 11 percent rise in Hsinchu city and county to NT$503,600 per ping, it said.
House prices in Taoyuan increased 9.06 percent to NT$459,400 per ping, 7.5 percent in Taipei to NT$1.21 million per ping and 7.01 percent to NT$507,000 per ping in Taichung, the survey showed.
Tainan bucked the trend with a 0.86 percent decline to NT$361,000 per ping, it said.
The 30-day sales rate softened 3.26 percentage points to 18.86 percent and the overall sales rate plunged 22.69 percent to 164.52, it said.
The gauge on price concessions held relatively steady, moving up 0.04 percentage points to 6.87 percent, the company said, adding that the reading narrowed to 4.85 percent in New Taipei City, but widened to 10.49 percent in Kaohsiung.
Prospective buyers increasingly refuse to accept price hikes, it said.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), Taiwan’s only listed real-estate broker, yesterday shared a similar observation that the percentage of people who expect house prices to rise has fallen to 27 percent from 60 percent in the first half of this year.
The market would need two to three quarters to assimilate the central bank’s credit controls, which lower the loan-to-value ratios by 10 percent for all mortgage applications except for first homes, Sinyi said.
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