Mortgages extended by domestic banks last month increased NT$89 billion (US$2.77 billion) from March, the largest monthly increase since December last year, when the figure grew NT$105 billion from the previous month, data released on Monday by the central bank showed.
On an annual basis, mortgages rose NT$862 billion or 9.12 percent, the highest yearly increase since May 2022 when it gained 9.2 percent, data showed.
People have resumed buying homes after the government in August last year introduced a new mortgage initiative for first-time buyers.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
The program has more flexible conditions for loan applications and sets a lower barrier for young people than the previous similar scheme, the Ministry of Finance has said.
In addition, a bullish market in Taiwanese equities so far this year — driven mainly by a semiconductor market recovery and a significant rise in demand for artificial intelligence products — has also generated a wealth effect and encouraged consumer spending, including home purchases, the central bank said.
The TAIEX yesterday gained 0.25 percent to close at another record-high of 21,858.41, having climbed 21.9 percent since the beginning of the year, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
The latest data compiled by the Ministry of the Interior showed that housing transactions across Taiwan increased 31.6 percent year-on-year to 111,680 units in the first four months of the year, the second-highest level for the same period over the past 13 years.
Against that backdrop, mortgages had increased every month since early last year, pushing the outstanding balance to a historic high of NT$10.309 trillion last month, central bank data showed.
The balance has been above the NT$10 trillion mark for five consecutive months.
Construction loans, an indicator of real-estate developers’ confidence in the sector, also increased by NT$16 billion last month from the previous month and grew by NT$105 billion from a year earlier, central bank data showed on Monday.
Both the monthly and annual increases were less than the rises of NT$70 billion and NT$111 billion respectively in the previous month, data showed.
While the outstanding balance of construction loans reached a record NT$3.277 trillion last month, the decelerating growth in the loans indicated a conservative stance among builders and developers amid uncertainties about the current housing and stock market boom, as well as pressures from rising building materials and construction costs, the central bank said.
In addition, the government’s initiative for supporting people buying homes is only to last for three years until July 31, 2026, another reason behind builders’ and developers’ conservatism as a new project usually takes two to three years to complete, the bank added.
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