Taiwanese have regained confidence in the property market, as slightly more people expect housing prices to rise next quarter, while fewer people expect price corrections, a quarterly survey released yesterday by Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) showed.
Thirty-four percent of survey respondents expected housing prices to increase in the coming three months, 5 percentage points higher than the preceding quarter, as recent rallies in the local bourse and sustained inflation eased a bleak outlook, Evertrust research manager Daniel Chen (陳賜傑) said.
Meanwhile, the percentage of people who expected price declines fell 7 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 33 percent, while another 33 percent held a neutral view, the survey showed.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
While major central banks have maintained their monetary tightening policies, they have eased the pace of interest rate hikes to reduce their effects on the economy, Chen said.
Still, the local and global economies would remain weak for the rest of the year, limiting room for upside development, the analyst said.
About 90 percent of respondents said it would be difficult for Taiwan’s economy to regain traction as exports have contracted for nine straight months and the situation might not improve any time soon, Chen said.
Against that backdrop, the nation’s largest house broker by number of outlets is looking at a 20 percent decline in property transactions in the first half of this year to 140,000, compared with the 22 percent drop it projected in March.
Housing prices would hold firm after a moderate rebound of 0.8 to 4.2 percent in the nation’s seven major cities, Evertrust general manager Yeh Ling-chi (葉凌棋) said, citing an internal survey.
Hsinchu overtook New Taipei City as the city with the second-highest median presale housing prices, which has soared 1.36 times in the past five years, Yeh said.
Median presale housing prices in Taipei remain the most expensive at NT$29.8 million (US$964,713) per unit, Yeh said, adding that two-bedroom apartments would likely continue to be the mainstream products in light of decreases affordability and population.
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