Most major property brokers saw a significant pickup in housing transactions this month, recovering from a slump last month when the Lunar New Year holiday cut working days and dampened buying interest.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), the nation’s largest broker by the number of offices, said existing house deals last month spiked 46 percent from one month earlier, as prospective buyers with real demand resumed house-hunting after the holiday.
Hsinchu County reported the biggest increase of 62 percent, followed by advances of more than 50 percent in Taipei and New Taipei City, Evertrust assistant research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said last week.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Transactions rose more than 40 percent in Taoyuan and Taichung, and climbed more than 20 percent in Tainan and Kaohsiung, Chen said.
The monthly gains had a lot to do with the low comparison base caused by the holiday, Chen said, adding that while people turned more active in house-hunting, many hesitated to make offers in expectation of price corrections.
Houses priced NT$10 million to NT$20 million (US$328,084 to US$656,168) were the mainstream products in Taipei, while properties that cost NT$8 million to NT$15 million were popular in New Taipei City and Taoyuan, he said.
Prospective buyers in Tainan and Kaohsiung favored homes priced NT$5 million to NT$15 million, Chen said.
Transactions in the first two months of this year shrank 26 percent from the same period last year, indicating a continued downturn that emerged in the second half of last year amid interest rate hikes and economic uncertainty, she said.
Chinatrust Real Estate Co (中信房屋) also reported that transactions this month rose 40.5 percent monthly, but deals during the first two months fell 27.6 percent from a year earlier.
The property market was affected by volatility on the local bourse, monetary tightening and a listless economy, compared with a year earlier, Chinatrust Real Estate said last week, adding that it is more helpful to analyze data from the first two months to eliminate holiday disruptions.
The negative sentiment also affected people with real demand as shown by longer consideration periods to close deals, Chinatrust said.
Consideration periods lengthened by an average of 12.5 days in the six special municipalities, it said.
H&B Realty Co (住商不動產), the nation’s largest broker by the number of franchises, said transactions fell 45.5 percent monthly, suggesting a challenging year ahead.
H&B research head Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said buyers are still in the holiday mood, due to the Taiwan Lantern Festival and the 228 Memorial Day holiday.
A few sellers showed flexibility over price concessions, but prices generally held firm, Hsu said.
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
High above the sparkling surface of the Athens coastline, the cranes for building the 50-floor luxury tower centerpiece of Greece’s future “smart city” look out over the Saronic Gulf. At their feet, construction machinery stirs up dust. Its backers say the 8 billion euro (US$8.43 billion) project financed by private funds is a symbol of Greece’s renaissance after the years of financial stagnation that saw investors flee the country. However, critics see it more as a future “ghetto for the rich.” It is hard to imagine that 10km from the Acropolis, a new city “three times the size of Monaco”
STRUGGLING BUSINESS: South Korea’s biggest company and semiconductor manufacturer’s buyback fuels concerns that it could be missing out on the AI boom Samsung Electronics Co plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) of its own stock over the next year, putting in motion one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history. South Korea’s biggest company would repurchase the stock in stages over the coming 12 months, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. As a first step, it would buy back about 3 trillion won of paper starting today up until February next year, all of which it would cancel. The board would deliberate on how best to effect the remaining 7 trillion won of buybacks. The move