Taiwan’s housing market showed tentative signs of stabilization last month, with property transfers in the six special municipalities totaling about 16,989 units — down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but up 5.7 percent from September, real-estate brokerages said on Monday.
“The latest data indicate the market might have reached a near-term floor, as the pace of decline has not deepened,” Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said in a report.
The market appears to be bottoming out, supported by resilient end-user demand and slower price increases, he said.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Policy adjustments have helped underpin sentiment, he said, adding that in September, the Financial Supervisory Commission exempted first-time home buyers from mortgage restrictions, while the central bank extended the grace period for home upgraders to sell their original property from 12 to 18 months.
A strong TAIEX and related wealth effect also lent support, Tseng said.
Among the six cities, Tainan posted the steepest decline, with housing transfers plunging 33.2 percent to 1,527 units, followed by Taipei’s 22 percent drop to 1,758 units and Kaohsiung’s 16.2 percent fall to 2,494 units on an annual basis, data compiled by local land administrations showed on Monday.
New Taipei City recorded the mildest decrease, down 3.6 percent to 4,204 units, while Taichung slipped 8.3 percent to 3,766 units and Taoyuan fell 11.4 percent to 3,240 units, the data showed.
In the first 10 months of the year, total housing transfers in the six cities decreased 26.6 percent year-on-year to 168,785 units, the lowest for the same period in eight years.
Tseng said the annual tally might struggle to surpass 260,000 units amid lingering market softness.
Last month’s figures mainly reflect deals struck in September, as paperwork typically takes at least a month to complete, said Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍), deputy research head at Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋).
More time is needed to gauge the impact of targeted credit easing, although buyer confidence has improved slightly, and wait-and-see behavior has eased, Chen said in a separate report.
Both Chen and Tseng said the central bank’s stance toward the domestic housing market would remain a key driver of future direction, even though the fourth quarter is traditionally the busy season for housing transactions.
The central bank is scheduled to review its mortgage curbs next month to determine whether to maintain them next year.
Taiwan’s ongoing trade negotiations with the US could also have significant influence over market sentiment, the analysts said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS