Taiwan’s property market cooled sharply last month, with housing transactions across the six special municipalities plunging, as central bank lending restrictions and US tariffs weighed on demand, brokers said.
Combined home transfers in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung fell 32.1 percent from a year earlier to 16,663 units, signaling a marked slowdown from last year’s brisk activity, according to Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed brokerage.
Taipei led the decline, with transactions sliding 33.4 percent to 1,704 units, while New Taipei City dropped 34.3 percent to 3,777 and Taoyuan fell 30.4 percent to 3,292, data from local land agencies showed.
Photo: Ho Hsiu-ling, Taipei Times
Taichung transactions slid 25.1 percent to 3,742 units, Tainan dropped 37.4 percent to 1,572, and Kaohsiung fell 35.4 percent to 2,576.
“The double-digit declines across all six special municipalities underscore a drastic cooling from previous market exuberance,” said Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德), research manager at Sinyi Realty. “Even traditionally resilient urban areas are not immune.”
The market has effectively entered a correction phase, with buyers largely staying on the sidelines, Tseng said, adding that future momentum would hinge on potential policy shifts — particularly whether the central bank would relax mortgage restrictions scheduled for review at the end of the year.
In August last year, the central bank urged lenders to voluntarily tighten home loans for a year after real estate lending approached record levels, citing risks that property loan concentration could crowd out financing for other sectors.
Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), head researcher at H&B Realty Co (住商不動產), said that upcoming deliveries of presale projects could exacerbate price pressures, urging prospective buyers to carefully assess their finances and property locations to avoid falling into negative equity.
Lenders have tightened requirements, demanding financial statements proving borrowers can meet mortgage obligations. Loan processing times have extended to six months from one-and-a-half months previously to curb real estate lending.
Hsu said the concentration of home loans remains a concern, prompting banks to maintain a cautious approach.
Meanwhile, upfront costs for homebuyers are rising, H&B Realty said.
The nationwide average down payment reached NT$3.43 million (US$111,625) in the first half of this year, up NT$235,000 from the same period last year, according to the broker.
The strain is most acute in Taipei, where young buyers face an average down payment of NT$6.68 million, the highest among the six special municipalities and nearly NT$1 million higher than a year earlier.
Lenders generally cap mortgages at 70 percent of a property’s value for first-time buyers, 50 percent for second-home purchases, and impose even stricter limits on multiple and luxury homes.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
RSS