Housing transactions in Taiwan’s six special municipalities last month shrank 15.3 percent from a year earlier to 19,824 units, as the central bank’s credit control measures dampened home buying interest.
Transactions in Taipei, New Taipei City and Tainan reported double-digit percentage retreats, and those in Kaohsiung and Taoyuan fell 8.1 percent and 0.6 percent respectively, while Taichung bucked the trend with a 2.1 percent increase, data from separate local land administrations showed on Monday.
“The negative impact of credit controls grew evident for the third straight month,” Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) research manager Tseng Ching-ter (曾敬德) said, adding that the downturn might persist this month and beyond.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
In the first 11 months of this year, total transactions in the six special municipalities increased 17.5 percent year-on-year to 249,864 units, although annual growth slowed from 21.6 percent in the first 10 months, data showed.
Still, overall housing deals for this year could hit an 11-year high of more than 350,000 units, thanks to a housing boom in the first eight months, Tseng said.
Reports of a cash crunch emerged in August when the central bank said it met with lenders for talks on self-disciplinary measures to curb real-estate lending as several banks moved close to their regulatory limits.
The central bank strictly tightened lending terms after voicing concerns about money overflowing to the real-estate sector, which would deny funding to other sectors and threaten the financial system’s stability in the event of house price corrections.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) research head Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said the credit controls put off expectations of house price hikes any time soon.
House sellers would need to make price concessions if they are serious about leaving the market, she added.
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