Developers and builders last year rolled out NT$2.1 trillion (US$67.71 billion) of presale projects, representing a 6 percent gain from a year earlier, though the number of units shrank 12.5 percent to 104,834, Shining Building Business Co (鄉林建設) said yesterday, citing data compiled by local associations of real-estate developers.
The Taichung-based company is looking at a flat market this year as uncertainty lingers despite an expected modest economic recovery in Taiwan.
The housing market took a hit in the first three quarters of last year from bans on transfers of purchase agreements for pre-sold and newly constructed homes as well as higher building costs and interest rate hikes, Shining chairman Lai Cheng-i (賴正鎰) said at a media gathering in Taipei.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
The market managed to stage a pickup in the final quarter after the central bank halted monetary tightening and the government introduced favorable lending terms for first-home purchases, Lai said.
Buyers who earlier stayed on the sidelines gradually rejoined the market and lent support to sales of small apartments, the Shining chairman said.
Apartments of 23 to 55 ping (181m2) would continue to dominate the market this year with presale house transactions and prices likely to hold steady, he added.
It is unlikely that developers would lower selling prices as the carbon tax alone would drive up construction costs by 15 percent, he said, pointing out that cement suppliers have announced a 15 percent price increase.
The carbon tax would also seriously affect glass and plastic pipe manufacturers, he added.
Environmental policies would contribute to the higher costs of goods and services, which would be passed on to consumers eventually, Lai said.
In response, developers have put urban renewal projects on hold in the hope that land owners would concede and allow developers more room for profit, he said.
The Ministry of the Interior yesterday said that the carbon tax would have a very limited impact at about 0.9 percent of total building costs, adding that developers should not use it as an excuse to hike prices.
Shining plans to launch a renewal project in Taipei’s
Zhongshan District (中山) later this month after winning approval from all land owners, Lai said.
The plot of 1,100 ping would be turned into a mixed-use complex with 123 residential units and 6 storefronts that might generate NT$13 billion in total sales, he said.
Shining also plans to roll out more than 200 apartment units later on a plot of 1,600 ping in Yunlin County, attracted by the improving infrastructure in the county’s Douliou City (斗六), Huwei Township (虎尾) and Dounan Township (斗南), Lai said.
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