Taiwan’s housing price index grew 1.82 percent to 133.18 in the third quarter of last year, when mortgage burdens picked up 0.16 percent from the second quarter to 42.25 percent of average household income, indicating that housing unaffordability sharpened, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday.
The reading represented a 5.42 percent hike compared with a year earlier, although the pace eased slightly for five consecutive quarters, the ministry found.
Overall, the house price-to-income ratio climbed to 9.82 times the average of household income nationwide, also a new high.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
The trend ran counter to joint efforts by policymakers to facilitate a soft landing for house prices, as housing unaffordability has long topped the public’s complaint, especially among young people.
Solid real demand and building material price hikes lent support to home prices, Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.
The government’s introduction in August last year of interest rate subsidies for first-home purchases put an end to a year-long slowdown caused by unfavorable measures and monetary tightening, Tseng said.
Meanwhile, housing transactions totaled 79,812 units nationwide from July to September, rising 6.91 percent from three months earlier and 9.14 percent from a year earlier, affirming a recovery, the ministry’s Web site showed.
The mortgage burden was highest at 67.13 percent in Taipei, where house prices spiked to 15.67 times household income, it showed.
The mortgage burden in New Taipei City stood at 55.35 percent, after house prices increased to 12.92 times household income, the ministry said.
The government deems mortgage burdens of 30 percent as reasonable, 30 to 40 percent as relatively high, and more than 50 percent as overly high.
Affordability in Taichung joined the “ultra-low” category as house prices constituted 11.74 times household income and the mortgage burden grew to 50.32 percent, it said.
Developers have in recent years introduced new luxury apartment complexes in Taichung to take advantage of its metro system and other improving infrastructure facilities.
Affordability in Tainan and Kaohsiung was relatively low, with mortgage burdens standing at 40.67 percent and 39.74 percent respectively after house prices climbed to 9.49 times and 9.27 times household income, the ministry said.
Mortgage burdens were also high in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin, Taitung, Hualien and Yilan, in addition to the outlying counties of Penghu and Kinmen, it said.
By contrast, affordability was reasonable in Keelung, as well as in Pingtung and Chiayi counties, it said.
Supply and demand would dominate the housing market’s direction after political uncertainty linked to the presidential election settled, Sinyi said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$10.26 billion to finance the construction of its second fab in Kumamoto, Japan, and a second fab in Arizona, using advanced process technologies. The Department of Investment Review approved TSMC’s investment applications on the basis that Taiwan remains a major technology and manufacturing hub for the chipmaker, which makes its most advanced chips at home, the company operates its research-and-development center here and the majority of its capacity remains in Taiwan. The latest capital injections — US$5.26 billion for its Japanese venture Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing
DIVERSIFYING: Following customers’ demand to improve supply chain resilience, ASE is looking for sites in the US, Japan and Mexico, a company executive said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it plans to launch a new high-end chip testing fab in the US next month to better serve its key customers based in North America, particularly California-based artificial intelligence (AI) customers. The new US testing facility would be operated by the firm’s subsidiary ISE Labs Inc, it said. ASE’s major customers, and high-ranking US officials and representatives from American Institute in Taiwan are to attend the fab’s opening ceremony on July 12, it said. ISE Labs last year acquired a 5,942m2 facility in San
Local companies believe that nearly a third of all job opportunities will vanish in 10 years due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), according to a survey released by online job bank yes123 on Tuesday. In the survey of 1,016 companies on the labor market’s third quarter outlook, the job bank focused in part on AI’s impact on workers and asked companies what percentage of jobs they felt would be lost to AI’s round-the-clock productivity and high-speed computing prowess. Respondents felt on average that 29.2 percent of job opportunities would be lost to AI over the next 10 years, but there
Taiwanese workers earned an average of NT$47,000 per month this year, but 40 percent are struggling financially and 18 percent plan to switch jobs within 12 months, two separate surveys showed yesterday. The amount equals a 5.4 percent increase from a year earlier to a decade high, 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said. The government is due to review the nation’s minimum wages. Employees at computer and consumer electronics manufacturers reported the highest average monthly wage of NT$60,000 a month, followed by semiconductor firms at NT$59,000, and vendors of shoe and textile products, along with software and Internet businesses at NT$55,000, 104 Job