RISING SUPPLY AND PRESSURE:Developers added to the total value of properties on the market in the fourth quarter, but said rising costs would halt a price correction

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 02, 2017
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

The new home market last quarter remained mired in sluggish trade, but developers held prices firm, supported by low borrowing costs and the central government encouraging urban renewal, a report by Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設) and National Chengchi University’s Taiwan Real Estate Research Center (台灣房地產中心) said last week.

Continued economic recovery at home and abroad lent support to the sentiment on the part of suppliers, even though buyers continue to prefer to wait and see while uncertainty pans out.

Developers and builders put NT$182.9 billion (US$5.83 billion at the current exchange rate) of presale projects and new homes on the market during the October-to-December period, an increase of 2.5 percent from the same period in 2015, the report said.

“I do not see room for a price correction going forward with construction costs on the rise and set to climb higher if the US dollar gains value against the New Taiwan dollar, which would make imported building materials more expensive,” Highwealth Construction Corp (興富發) founder Cheng Chin-tien (鄭欽天) said last month.    [FULL  STORY]