OPTIMISTIC: As the economy buoysters developer confidence, presale projects could see a double-digit increase, with builders avoiding year-end elections and larger apartments

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 05, 2018
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Presale housing projects could rise by a double-digit percentage this year from last year due to continued economic improvement, but most of the projects are to be launched in the next six months to avoid the uncertainty related to year-end elections, the General Chamber of Commerce (GCC, 商業總會) said yesterday.

Presale projects offered could increase 21 percent, from NT$745.5 billion last year to NT$900 billion (US$25.19 billion to US$30.42 billion) this year, as healthy economic fundamentals at home and abroad give builders and developers more confidence, said GCC chairman Lai Cheng-yi (賴正鎰), who also heads Shining Construction Group (鄉林集團).

“Small apartments of between 18 ping and 25 ping [59.5m2 and 82.6m2] will be the mainstream products as bigger ones have difficulty finding buyers,” Lai said, adding that apartments smaller than 55 ping account for more than 90 percent of the market.

The central bank has implemented credit control measures on luxury homeowners, limiting mortgages to 60 percent of the evaluation, about 10 percent less than for typical mortgage applications.    [FULL  STORY]