Property transactions in the six special municipalities last month totaled 21,368 units, spiking 33.7 percent from one month earlier, driven by people with real demand and new housing completions, brokers said yesterday.
The rebound approached 30 percent in Taipei to 2,553 deals, and climbed even faster in New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung and Kaohsiung, data from respective local governments showed.
Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) research head Charlene Chang (張旭嵐) attributed the pickup to five more working days last month compared with April, as well as new housing deliveries.
Photo: CNA
“People with real demand took action after expectations that housing prices would decline failed to realize,” Chang said.
The absence of new unfavorable policy measures spurred buyers to quit waiting and join the market, the analyst said.
New Taipei City posted the biggest month-on-month gain of 43.9 percent to 5,562 deals, followed by a 40.3 percent increase to 3,724 units in Taoyuan.
Transactions in Taichung registered a 32.4 percent jump to 4,052 units and advanced 34 percent to 3,525 deals in Kaohsiung. Tainan was relatively calm with 8.7 percent growth to 1,952 deals.
The unease linked to the bans on transfers of presale house purchase contracts subsided last month, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said.
Furthermore, new housing delivery accounted for transaction advances in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang (新莊), Sanchong (三重) and Sijhih (汐止) districts, as well as Taoyuan’s Longtan (龍潭) and Jhongli (中壢) districts, Evertrust Rehouse deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said.
However, it would be too early to paint the rebound as a sustained recovery as the transaction volume shrank 6.4 percent compared with a year earlier, Chen said.
Cumulative deals in the first five months of the year tumbled 21.4 percent year-on-year to 86,640 units for the six special municipalities, Chen added.
Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) head researcher Mandy Lang (郎美囡) was also cautious, saying buyers and sellers remained at loggerheads over housing prices, which could slow transactions.
Additionally, the rebound would come to a halt if the central bank raises interest rates again later this month, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said.
The central bank is to review its monetary policy on June 15.
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