Taiwanese developers are delaying new housing projects as tight credit, high prices and weak demand weigh on the market, with the transaction value of new-home and presale launches in northern Taiwan falling 17.6 percent in the first nine months of the year, the Chinese-language My Housing Monthly (住展雜誌) reported.
The value of residential projects launched in the region totaled about NT$766.7 billion (US$24.13 billion) through this month, down NT$163.4 billion from a year earlier, the magazine said.
The decline marks a further pullback from the market. Projects launched in the first three quarters of the year topped NT$1 trillion in the past few years, and it exceeded NT$900 billion last year.
Photo: CNA
“Developers are reluctant to add to the supply pressure and are choosing to delay new projects where possible,” magazine spokesman Chen Ping-cheng (陳炳辰) said.
Developers are also facing competition for investment funds from Taiwan’s stock market, which attracted substantial capital in the first half, Chen said.
Tighter mortgage conditions have further constrained buyers’ ability to finance home purchases, he said.
The central bank’s decision to raise the loan-to-value cap for second-home buyers to 70 percent, along with signals that it would not further tighten property curbs, has yet to generate a meaningful pickup in demand, Chen said.
A stock market pullback in July also failed to send significant funds into the property sector, as some investors remained stuck in losing equity positions, while others held back in expectation of a recovery in stocks, he said.
The slowdown was broad across northern Taiwan, the magazine said. Project launches in Taoyuan fell 32.2 percent to NT$195.1 billion, while in Taipei they dropped 30.7 percent to NT$143.1 billion, it said.
New Taipei City declined 19.8 percent to NT$280.2 billion, as developers become increasingly selective, the magazine said.
Hsinchu County was an exception, with the value of new projects more than doubling to NT$118.5 billion. Several large developments in the county’s Jhubei City (竹北) and Jhudong Township (竹東) helped drive the increase, as developers brought forward projects delayed during an earlier period of consolidation, it said.
Northern Taiwan would need about NT$233.3 billion of new launches in the fourth quarter to push the full-year total above NT$1 trillion, Chen said.
However, that target could be difficult to reach, as the central bank’s latest easing of property restrictions has yet to materially improve market sentiment, with some buyers likely to defer purchases toward the end of this year, while some large projects could be pushed into next year, he added.
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