Developers last quarter launched NT$266.9 billion (US$8.68 billion) worth of presale and new housing, significantly lower than the previous quarter and a year earlier, as economic weakness, monetary tightening and regulations slowed transactions, a survey released on Thursday by Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設) showed.
The volume represented a 43.1 percent plunge from the previous quarter and a 30.1 percent retreat from the same period last year, the quarterly survey found.
The number of housing units for sale tumbled 36.8 percent year-on-year and 20.5 percent quarterly to 16,349, consistent with poor sentiment after the central bank raised interest rates five times over the past year and the economy slipped into a deeper-than-expected technical recession.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Exports have fallen for seven consecutive months, prompting the central bank in March to trim its forecast for GDP growth this year to 2.21 percent, the survey said.
The nation’s economy contracted by 3.02 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics reported on Friday, adding that it expects full-year growth to weaken to 1.67 percent.
The government’s proposed bans on transfers of presale home purchase agreements are also scaring away investors, leaving the market to buyers with real demand, the survey said.
Nationwide, asking prices for presale homes averaged NT$468,000 per ping (3.3m2), declining 0.18 percent from three months earlier, but rising 10.05 percent from a year earlier, it said.
Unfavorable factors have led developers to halt price increases, but adjustments are not evident or broad-based and are limited by rising land and building material expenses, it added.
Asking prices for presale homes in Taichung reported the steepest fall of 7.14 percent to NT$418,200 per ping, while those in Taoyuan gained 4.13 percent to NT$360,800 per ping.
In Taipei, asking prices fell 3.63 percent to NT$1.08 million per ping, compared with a 1.66 percent increase to NT$551,500 per ping in New Taipei City.
Transactions slumped 77.78 percent in Taipei, fell 48.43 percent in New Taipei City and tumbled 51.99 percent in Taichung, while in Tainan and Kaohsiung, they fell 28.11 and 23.03 percent respectively, the survey said.
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