Housing transactions last month slumped 40 percent from May, as a level 3 COVID-19 alert chilled buying interest and caused inconvenience for house hunting, major real-estate brokers said yesterday.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), Taiwan’s largest real-estate broker by number of offices, reported a 37 percent decline in sales, with the retreat most evident in New Taipei City, a hot spot of domestic COVID-19 inflections.
Evertrust research department deputy head Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said that movement restrictions, and the ban on indoor gatherings of five people or more caused inconvenience for house hunting as buildings with security guards generally turned away visitors.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Sales of units in older buildings remained relatively strong, as access to buildings without security guards was less of an issue, Chen said.
However, sentiment appeared to have stabilized in the second half of last month after the daily number of domestic cases fell below 100, she said.
However, a cluster infection with the more infectious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in Pingtung County continued to create uncertainty, Chen said, declining to speculate on the timing of the expected recovery.
The third quarter is traditionally a low sales season, with Ghost Month falling mostly in August this year, she said.
The market also needs to assimilate to the increased property tax rates of 35 to 45 percent for units resold within five years of purchase, she said, adding that the measure would take effect today.
H&B Realty Co (住商不動產), Taiwan’s largest real-estate broker by number of franchises, said that its housing transactions nosedived 35.1 percent.
The decline is sharpest in Taipei, at 41.8 percent, as residents have refrained from going out to help curb the spread of the virus, H&B Realty research manager Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.
Hsu said she was uncertain whether the virus outbreak might have deprived sellers from placing their property on the market before the higher taxes take effect.
Mandy Lang (郎美囡), a researcher at H&B Realty-affiliated Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋), said that this month’s data would reveal how the market fares, as low interest rates and ample liquidity continue to back the market.
Chinatrust Real Estate Co (中信房屋) said that its sales plunged 39.6 percent, with decreases in Taipei and New Taipei City of 40.9 percent and 53.8 percent respectively.
In other municipalities, sales were down about 35 percent, as domestic cases were concentrated in northern Taiwan, it said.
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