Housing transactions last month retained their resiliency from October, as inflation concerns supported buyer interest, but the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 increased uncertainty over a global recovery, local property brokers said yesterday.
Evertrust Rehousing Co (永慶房屋) said that housing deals at its offices across Taiwan last month stayed on a par with October, in line with seasonality.
This quarter is the peak sales season and the momentum might last ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, Evertrust research department deputy head Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said.
Photo: Annabelle Chih, Reuters
A stable economy, mounting inflationary pressures and low interest rates all bode well for property sales, as real estate remains a solid choice among Taiwanese to defend against inflation, Chen said, adding that buyers would close on properties they consider to be fairly priced.
Buyers had better exercise caution when balancing their finances with interest in buying real estate, as the central bank might raise interest rates next year to help rein in inflation, she said.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) said that it saw housing transactions last month grow 2 percent from October, mainly due to relocation and investment needs.
Toward the end of the month, apartments priced at more than NT$20 million (US$719,166) gained appeal, and trading in Taipei and New Taipei City is catching up with sales in central and southern Taiwan, Sinyi said.
Plans by major local tech firms to set up new plants in Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung have significantly pushed up housing prices in those areas, and buyers have grown cautious, it said.
However, the market appeared unaffected by the central bank’s tightening of rules regarding second-home mortgages in the six special municipalities and Hsinchu city and county, Sinyi research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾進德) said.
Tseng voiced concern that the monetary policymaker might introduce further credit controls so that the housing market has a “soft landing.”
H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) reported that trading last month fell 6.6 percent from October, while Chinatrust Real Estate Co (中信房屋) reported a 3.5 percent decline, as buyers and sellers increasingly disagreed on pricing.
H&B said that sellers in Kaohsiung drastically raised their asking prices after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) announced plans to build new factories in the southern city, which scared away buyers.
Chinatrust said that the outlook for property sales looks bright if Taiwan can ward off uncertainty linked with the Omicron variant.
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