Transactions of residential and commercial property in Taiwan’s six special municipalities hit an 11-year high last year, driven by strong demand in the first six months, local government data showed.
Significant demand from January to June offset the effects of the seventh round of selective credit controls launched in the second half by the central bank to limit mortgage eligibility, the data showed.
Transactions of homes, shops, offices and factories in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 271,309 units, up 14.7 percent from a year earlier and an 11-year high, the data showed.
Photo: CNA
Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), research head of property agency H&B Realty Co (住商不動產), said that the credit controls in September affected the local home market.
However, government subsidies for home buyers pushed up property sales in the first half, which helped offset the effect of the central bank’s intervention, Hsu said.
All of the special municipalities reported a year-on-year increase in sales of homes, shops, offices and factories, the data showed.
Residential and commercial property sales last year in Taipei, the most closely watched property market in Taiwan, rose 12.0 percent from a year earlier to 29,930 units, while sales in New Taipei City, the most populous city in the country, rose 6.9 percent to 64,169 units, the data showed.
In Taoyuan, property transactions totaled 49,189 units, up 20.8 percent from a year earlier, while sales in Taichung rose 15.3 percent to 54,996 units, they showed.
Tainan’s property sales grew 11.4 percent from a year earlier to 27,783 units, while sales in Kaohsiung rose 24.8 percent to 45,242 units, they showed.
Sales in Tainan hit a historical high, while transactions in Taichung and Kaohsiung were the highest in 17 and 18 years respectively, said Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍), a research manager at Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶集團).
Property sales in the six municipalities last month alone totaled 21,445 units, up 8.2 percent from a month earlier, but down 9.7 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
Charlene Chang (張旭嵐), a section chief at Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋), said that the spike last month was due to some home buyers wanting to move into a new house before the Lunar New Year.
Moderating economic growth made some home sellers more willing to cut prices, Chang added.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
RSS