Changes to the Equalization of Land Rights Act (平均地權條例) might trigger panic selling of presale house purchase agreements and weigh on overall property deals, real-estate analysts said yesterday.
The amendments, which cleared the legislature yesterday morning, would ban transfers of presale house purchase agreements and require legal entities to obtain permission from their respective governing authority before buying a residential unit.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said the legislation in essence limits presale housing projects to buyers with real demand and puts an end to people profiting from reselling purchase agreements that cost relatively little.
Photo: CNA
“The revisions aim to stem short-term property speculation for presale and existing housing, which would help make house prices in Taiwan more reasonable,” Evertrust Rehouse deputy research head Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said, adding that unaffordable housing has ranked the No. 1 public complaint over past few years, especially among young people.
Investment-minded holders of presale house contracts would opt out and take a loss if necessary, as some would not have the financial means to absorb the mortgage burdens, Evertrust Rehouse said.
The legislation should succeed in calming house price increase expectations and prevent a bubble from forming, the broker said.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) said the requirement that legal entities gain approval before buying real estate would slow luxury house transactions and dampen capital repatriation.
Some people have channeled money from abroad to buy luxury houses in Taiwan to dodge stiff income taxes abroad, while others have used upscale housing to protect themselves from inflation, Sinyi said.
The amendments could discourage such practices, which noticeably cooled last year due to interest rate hikes, unfavorable tax terms and other headwinds, Sinyi said.
H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said that the slowdown in the local housing market has to do with the amendments being proposed in July last year.
Investors have since fled the market, although they were hoping the government might back off, H&B research manager Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said.
“Panic selling looks inevitable and might cause a splash,” Hsu said.
However, it is too early to tell if there would be evident housing price corrections, she said.
Rather, the requirement to gain permission might discourage urban renewal projects, Hsu added.
SEE LAWMAKERS ON PAGE 1
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS