MARKETING HYPE:Amid Ghost Month tradition and possible advertising saturation, presale housing development projects in northern Taiwan have stalled after a boom

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 07, 2015
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Presale housing projects in northern Taiwan dropped to a 14-year low of NT$11.8 billion (US$359.39 million) last month. The figure corresponds to an amount less than 30 percent of the total in June, as concerns over sluggish transactions drove developers to sit out the lunar Ghost Month.

Ghost Month, during which people tend to shun moving into new apartments, starting businesses or getting married in order to avoid bad luck, falls between Aug. 14 and Sept. 12 this year.

“Tradition aside, the nation’s poor economy and stock rout feed unease among prospective buyers,” Housing Monthly (住展雜誌) research manager Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said in a telephone interview.     [FULL  STORY]