The central bank on Friday invited major local banks that handle mortgages to discuss issues such as the real-estate business outlook and credit risk controls for house and land purchases.
The initiative comes at a time when increased property speculation has raised eyebrows and various ministries are drafting new policies to curb speculative investment in real estate.
During the meeting, the central bank urged lenders to strictly review loan conditions, improve risk control, monitor the use of funds and enhance post-loan management. It also said that it would continue to pay attention to the real-estate market and banks’ credit risk, as the sound development of the property market is closely related to the nation’s financial stability — a message that suggested that the central bank might discuss whether to offer selective credit controls at its next quarterly policymaking meeting at the earliest.
Taiwan’s real-estate market has since June been gradually recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to the nation’s effective control of the outbreak, a low interest rate environment and high market liquidity.
Even though it remains uncertain whether the market will boom in the near term, there is no doubt that housing prices in major cities are already so high that housing is one of the major issues that young people face, in addition to low wages and a bleak future.
Over the past few decades, the government has adopted numerous housing and tax reforms to slow the increase of real-estate prices, as policymakers recognized that the rise in prices might pose a problem not just for young people, but also for the nation’s long-term economic development and competitiveness.
However, the problem, first highlighted by the landmark Snails Without Shells movement in 1989, has never been solved. Ironically, despite the nation’s declining birthrate, developers and builders still continue to launch new housing projects, which has caused the number of vacant houses to rise.
However, should housing prices not have started to decline long ago if they were subject to the laws of supply and demand? To those who call on the government to respect the mechanism of the free market, skeptical of any government intervention, how are the persistently rising housing prices and the increasing number of construction projects reasonable?
People in Taiwan know that it is important to establish a healthy housing market, develop a sound rental market and provide more public housing to address the issue. The problem is that property owners generally do not want the government to regulate the rental market, and most people do not welcome any plans to build public housing in their neighborhood.
On the other hand, public land in urban areas is becoming increasingly scarce, making plots for public housing development difficult to find.
Past housing and tax reform measures have proved ineffective, and, in some cases, have generated adverse effects or encouraged tax evasion.
Regardless of what actions the government might take to deal with the issue, every move, including the central bank’s meeting with major mortgage operators, reflects the urgency and severity of the problem.
It also brings to light a persistent social discontent that keeps pushing policymakers to act.
If the government cannot make everyone rich enough to buy a home, it should at least work toward building a society in which resources are distributed more evenly.
The government should make efforts to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, allowing everyone to enjoy the same convenience no matter where they live, and encourage people to pursue careers in their hometowns instead of moving to the big cities — measures that could offer an alternative to addressing the nation’s housing issue.
Taiwan should reject two flawed answers to the Eswatini controversy: that diplomatic allies no longer matter, or that they must be preserved at any cost. The sustainable answer is to maintain formal diplomatic relations while redesigning development relationships around transparency, local ownership and democratic accountability. President William Lai’s (賴清德) canceled trip to Eswatini has elicited two predictable reactions in Taiwan. One camp has argued that the episode proves Taiwan must double down on support for every remaining diplomatic ally, because Beijing is tightening the screws, and formal recognition is too scarce to risk. The other says the opposite: If maintaining
India’s semiconductor strategy is undergoing a quiet, but significant, recalibration. With the rollout of India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0, New Delhi is signaling a shift away from ambition-driven leaps toward a more grounded, capability-led approach rooted in industrial realities and institutional learning. Rather than attempting to enter the most advanced nodes immediately, India has chosen to prioritize mature technologies in the 28-nanometer to 65-nanometer range. That would not be a retreat, but a strategic alignment with domestic capabilities, market demand and global supply chain gaps. The shift carries the imprimatur of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, indicating that the recalibration is
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), during an interview for the podcast Lanshuan Time (蘭萱時間) released on Monday, said that a US professor had said that she deserved to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize following her meeting earlier this month with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Cheng’s “journey of peace” has garnered attention from overseas and from within Taiwan. The latest My Formosa poll, conducted last week after the Cheng-Xi meeting, shows that Cheng’s approval rating is 31.5 percent, up 7.6 percentage points compared with the month before. The same poll showed that 44.5 percent of respondents
China last week announced that it picked two Pakistani astronauts for its Tiangong space station mission, indicating the maturation of the two nations’ relationship from terrestrial infrastructure cooperation to extraterrestrial strategic domains. For Taiwan and India, the developments present an opportunity for democratic collaboration in space, particularly regarding dual-use technologies and the normative frameworks for outer space governance. Sino-Pakistani space cooperation dates back to the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, with a cooperative agreement between the Pakistani Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, and the Chinese Ministry of Aerospace Industry. Space cooperation was integrated into the China-Pakistan
RSS