Nearly 80 percent of Taiwan’s home buyers believe it is wise to wait on the sidelines until next year about whether to join the market, as economic uncertainty escalates and selective credit controls linger, a survey by Chinatrust Real Estate Co (中信房屋) showed yesterday.
The global political and economic landscape this year appears uncertain and volatile, casting a shadow on the nation’s economy and housing market, according to a quarterly survey conducted by the Taipei-based real estate broker.
Many Taiwanese turn cautious about the showings in the coming three months, when only 16.1 percent are looking at economic improvement, while 52 percent believe the situation would deteriorate and 31.9 percent think it would hold steady.
Photo courtesy of Chinatrust Real Estate Co
Although the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics last month forecast GDP growth of 3.14 percent for this year, downside risks have intensified since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, and raised tariffs on different imports and threatened more, said Chuang Si-ming (莊思敏), deputy research manager at Chinatrust Real Estate.
Trump’s tariff hikes would drive up inflationary pressures and create unease among trade partners across the world, making any predictions complicated and difficult, Chuang said.
When asked when would be best to buy houses, nearly 80 percent of respondents believe they should wait and see until next year, and 20.5 percent said it would be wise to make a move in next six months, the survey found.
The findings represented a modest pickup of 3.7 percentage points from three months earlier, when only 16.8 percent entertained the idea of home purchases in the coming six months, which Chuang attributed to the effect of year-end bonuses, which bolstered the banking system’s deposits and eased overconcentration of real-estate lending.
Buying interest is particularly evident among first-home buyers, as they are qualified for favorable lending terms, Chuang said.
Regarding house prices near the plants of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), 53 percent of respondents believe they would go up, 31.9 percent are looking at stable prices and 10.4 percent forecast price corrections, the survey showed.
The mixed sentiments reflect rising concern over a sizable amount of TSMC capacity to be shifted from Taiwan to the US following the chipmaker’s recent announcement of an additional US$100 billion investment in the US, Chuang said.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS