Housing deals last month cooled moderately compared with September, despite it traditionally being the high season for property transfers, major real-estate brokers said yesterday.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said transactions at its outlets nationwide shed 1 percent from a month earlier, at odds with the seasonal trend.
The absence of a seasonal advance had much to do with Taiwan’s interest rate hikes and the TAIEX’s deep corrections that made prospective home buyers more financially cautious, Evertrust deputy research head Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said in a statement.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Property transfers held steady in Taipei and edged up in New Taipei City, Chen said, adding that the decline widened to 6 percent in Taoyuan.
Housing deals in Tainan gained 10 percent, but dropped 2 percent in Kaohsiung, Chen said, citing the company’s internal data.
Transactions fell 1 percent in Hsinchu and Taichung, she said.
The lackluster showings for last month came despite buying interest picking up 10 percent from the previous month. People hesitated to make offers in the hope of price corrections, Chen said.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) shared similar observations, but said that relocation needs underpinned transactions.
People with relocation needs had usually done enough research to close deals after working out pricing differences with sellers, Sinyi research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾進德) said in a separate statement.
Apartments priced between NT$20 million and NT$25 million (US$620,925 and US$776,156) per unit accounted for the majority of deals in Taipei, while apartments valued at NT$7 million to NT$15 million per unit were the majority in New Taipei City, Tseng said, referring to statistics compiled by the real-estate brokerage.
Elsewhere, apartments priced at NT$10 million to NT$15 million had fair chances of attracting buyers, he said.
Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) saw transactions falling 3.3 percent at its offices across Taiwan, as buyers said they needed more time for consideration.
However, the slowdown was the result of price differences rather than a lack of interest, Taiwan Realty research head Charlene Chang (張旭嵐) said in a news release.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
CHANGING JAPAN: Nvidia-powered AI services over cellular networks ‘will result in an artificial intelligence grid that runs across Japan,’ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said Softbank Group Corp would be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell design, a demonstration of the Japanese company’s ambitions to catch up on artificial intelligence (AI). The group’s telecom unit, Softbank Corp, plans to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer to support local services, it said. That computer would be based on Nvidia’s DGX B200 product, which combines computer processors with so-called AI accelerator chips. A follow-up effort will feature Grace Blackwell, a more advanced version, the company said. The announcement indicates that Softbank Group, which until early 2019 owned 4.9 percent of Nvidia, has secured a
RSS