Mortgages extended by domestic banks last month increased NT$70.25 billion (US$2.52 billion) from September, while construction loans increased by NT$23.95 billion, data released on Thursday by the central bank showed.
The monthly increases were higher than September’s increases of NT$60.96 billion in mortgages and NT$19.21 billion in construction loans.
It was also the largest monthly growth for mortgages since July, as people resumed buying houses after the easing of a COVID-19 outbreak that started in May. Housing transactions also picked up speed after Ghost Month, which this year took place from Aug. 8 to Sept. 6.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
The central bank data showed that mortgages and construction loans have increased every month this year, pushing their outstanding balances to historic highs of NT$8.61 trillion and NT$2.73 trillion respectively last month.
However, their annual growth has gradually slowed, an indication that the central bank’s selective credit control measures for the market might be working, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported on Friday, quoting central bank officials.
Last month, mortgages increased 9.37 percent year-on-year, down 0.01 percentage points from September and the fourth consecutive monthly drop, while construction loans increased 15.25 percent, the smallest expansion since July last year, the data showed.
Since March last year, the central bank has implemented several measures to rein in rising housing prices, such as increasing the cost and limiting the source of funds for property buyers through loan-to-value ratio caps, while the central bank and the Financial Supervisory Commission have conducted special inspections of domestic banks to determine whether they are exercising solid risk management on real-estate lending.
However, it remains to be seen whether the downward trend in the annual growth of mortgages and construction loans is to continue, as housing sales appear to remain robust and the market is entering its peak season, central bank officials said.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the