Presale and new housing prices last quarter climbed 6.01 percent to NT$458,600 (US$15,323) per ping (3.3m2), although transactions slumped 29.71 percent as COVID-19 infections and interest rate hikes fueled caution on the part of developers and buyers, a survey by Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設) showed on Wednesday.
Developers and builders released 187 projects offering 16,473 new housing units that could generate NT$290.8 billion in sales, a 23.9 percent fall from the first quarter, on the central bank’s liquidity tightening policy and expectations that buying interest would weaken amid spiking COVID-19 infections, Cathay said.
However, asking prices rose in the municipalities of Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, and in Hsinchu county and city, with New Taipei City seeing a fractional 0.11 percent decline to NT$496,700 per ping, it said.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Taoyuan reported the steepest price advance of 16.35 percent to NT$385,000 per ping as soaring building material prices and relative affordability provided developers with enough comfort to adopt a bold pricing strategy, Cathay said.
New housing prices gained 11.17 percent to NT$409,500 per ping in Hsinchu County and increased 8.98 percent to NT$422,200 per ping in Taichung, it said.
Prices grew 5.39 percent to NT$284,600 per ping in Tainan and scaled up 5.28 percent to NT$305,100 in Kaohsiung, it added.
The gauge on price concessions widened mildly by 1.21 percentage points to 8.93 percent, indicating the supply side generally refused to budge despite heightening economic headwinds, Cathay said.
The property market is likely to enter a consolidation phase, with room for price gains squeezed by inflation, interest rate hikes, unfavorable lending terms and ongoing COVID-19 infections, it said.
November’s elections of local administrators could also drive buyers to the sidelines amid political uncertainty, considering that candidates tend to pledge measures to mitigate housing unaffordability while campaigning, it said.
Separately, Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) on Tuesday reported that net income fell 36.11 percent year-on-year to NT$313 million last quarter, as a COVID-19 outbreak and interest rate hikes dampened buying interest.
Earnings per share were NT$0.43 last quarter, compared with NT$0.67 a year earlier, when a level 3 COVID-19 alert kept people at home, Sinyi said, adding that for the first half of this year, net income decreased 16.77 percent year-on-year to NT$791 million, or earnings per share of NT$1.07.
Significant housing price gains across Taiwan and the central bank’s monetary tightening have made people more cautious this year, Sinyi said, adding that the central bank has asked people to be careful about financial leveraging.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
RSS