TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — According to a survey of online housing platforms conducted by Yung Ching Rehouse (永慶房產集團), Taiwan’s housing market saw 5,000 new units enter the market in August, equivalent to a 2.5% month-on-month increase.
Justine Chen (陳金萍), head of research at Yung Ching Rehouse, said over the past two years, the domestic housing market has been characterized as "supply exceeding demand." This condition continues to persist in August, with first-time homebuyers exhibiting a wait-and-see approach to real estate transactions, causing the market to cool and transactions to decline, per UDN.
As for the monthly housing supply in seven major metropolitan areas in August, New Taipei City exhibited a 3.6% month-on-month increase in available units. Taoyuan City increased by 3.5%, Kaohsiung City increased by 3.1%, Taipei City increased by 2.9%, Hsinchu County and Tainan City both increased by 2.6%, while Taichung increased 1.7%.
Chen said that real estate sales volumes in the seven major metropolitan areas all showed a slight increase, though growth was not evenly dispersed as rapid sales were expected in low and medium-value homes, while sales of medium and large residential properties were slow.
Chen added the Cabinet’s decision to prioritize mortgage loans for first-time homeowners and self-occupancy units has also affected the market, creating a shortage of available mortgage loans that will be difficult to alleviate in the short term.
The tightening of mortgage funds is expected to make it more difficult to digest the increased volume of housing units on the market. Chen predicted the overall housing market would slow due to more units and fewer mortgage funds. This year's housing market transactions are bound to be affected.
According to Yung Ching Rehouse estimates, the annual transaction volume of housing units this year will still be higher than last year's 307,000 units. However, it is widely expected that the sales and transfer of housing units will not keep up with the growing supply over the next few months, indicating a significant cooling of the domestic housing market.
