Housing transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities last month soared 61.4 percent from a month earlier to 25,257 units, as the market emerged from a holiday effect, but interest rate hikes are driving market uncertainty, real-estate brokers said last week.
The figure marked an 11.9 percent increase over the same period last year, they said.
Kaohsiung, New Taipei City, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei and Taoyuan all reported transaction increases of more than 50 percent month-on-month, thanks partly to a low comparison base in February, as people put off purchases during the Lunar New Year holiday, brokers said.
“The week-long holiday postponed home purchases
The extra mortgage burden from the central bank on Thursday hiking the interest rate should be bearable and might help deter developers from increasing prices, brokers said yesterday.
The 0.25 percentage point rate hike would lift the mortgage interest rate to 1.65 percent from 1.4 percent, adding NT$1,200 (US$42.31) of interest expense a month for people with NT$10 million of mortgage on a 20-year payment scheme, said Tseng Ching-der (增進德), research manager at Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed broker.
“The extra burden is about the cost of a bowl of braised pork rice each day, a sacrifice that is
Major real-estate brokers last month saw housing transactions decline by double-digit percentages from January as the week-long Lunar New Year holiday and bad weather dampened buying interest.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) reported a 24 percent slump in sales last month, when persistent rain kept people at home, and the Lunar New Year and 228 Memorial Day holidays cut working days, deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said.
The fall also had to do with a spate of unfavorable policy measures to cool the property fever, Chen said.
Property buyers are having more difficulty securing housing loans after the Financial Supervisory Commission raised risk
The high number of construction permits and building use licenses issued by the government last year reflects not only a robust property market, but also an abundant supply, which could translate into selling pressure in a correction period, analysts said.
Construction permits across the nation increased 6.5 percent to 169,651, the highest in 26 years, while building use licenses rose by 6,600 to a 12-year high of 104,000, data released on Wednesday by the Ministry of the Interior showed.
Construction permits reflect confidence on the supply side, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) head researcher Mandy Lang (郎美囡) said, adding that a robust
Presale and new housing projects available for sale last quarter expanded 11.7 percent nationwide from three months earlier to NT$378.7 billion (US$13.65 billion) amid price hikes aided by a healthy economy and low interest rates, a survey by Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設) showed on Tuesday.
Asking prices picked up 9.11 percent on average across Taiwan, with the pace of growth exceeding 10 percent in New Taipei City, Tainan, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, it found, reflecting solid demand and rosy sentiment on the part of developers and builders.
The volume represented a 16.6 percent increase compared with a year