New housing projects launched this month in northern Taiwan are likely to total NT$36 billion (US$1.22 billion), down 68 percent annually to the worst level in 20 years, as a spike in domestic COVID-19 infections chills buying interest, My Housing Monthly said yesterday. The decline is smaller than at the height of the 2003-2004 SARS outbreak, partly because many civil servants are quarantined at home, stalling building permit reviews, the property publication said. “This time around, the virus outbreak appears to be more effective than credit controls and other unfavorable policy measures at cooling the property market,” head researcher Ho Shih-chang (何世昌)