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.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort