Home transactions and housing prices could remain unchanged or rise slightly in the first half of next year due to a relatively high comparison base this year, Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) research fellow Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said on Thursday.
This year, the property market continues to be supported by historically low interest rates in a market awash in ample liquidity, while many equity investors have chosen to lock in their gains and reallocate money to real estate, Liu said.
Many people buy homes to fend off inflationary pressure, Liu said, citing a survey in which 66 percent of respondents preferred to invest in real estate, while 37 percent preferred equity markets.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
The preference for investing in real estate is expected to continue to shore up the local property market next year, she added.
Business sentiment among property developers last month weakened from September, TIER data showed, as few new projects were launched, while the delay of projects by some property developers also made the industry cautious.
However, property sales in Taiwan remained strong, Liu said, citing a sequential increase of 11.3 percent in commercial and residential property transactions to 23,810 units in the nation’s six special municipalities last month.
Transaction growth was largely due to eased concerns over a domestic outbreak of COVID-19 cases, which prompted many property investors and home buyers to jump into the property market, and helped to keep home prices at relative highs, she said.
The central bank is likely to follow the US Federal Reserve in an expected cycle of rate hikes in the middle of next year, although local rates are expected to remain lower than the US Fed’s, while the hikes’ effects are likely to be acceptable to the property market, Liu said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group