Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/04
By: Wei Shu and Frances Huang

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) Sinyi Realty Inc. (信義房屋), one of Taiwan’s leading property sales agencies, said Saturday that the weakness of the Japanese yen has not only lured Taiwanese travelers but also potential home buyers here who are eager to take advantage of foreign exchange gains.

Ho Wei-hung (何偉宏), head of Sinyi Realty’s subsidiary in Japan, said that many Taiwanese who were taking a trip to Tokyo were seeking property investment instruments in the city in light of the yen’s recent plunge against the greenback.

With the Bank of Japan, the Japanese central bank, kicking off a U.S. Federal Reserve-style quantitative easing, the yen has been trending lower against the currencies of its major trading partners.

Since the beginning of 2014, the Japanese currency has dropped more than 17 percent against the U.S. dollar, and many Taiwanese consumers have found that not only travel to Japan but also a wide range of products, including property items, have become more affordable.     [FULL  STORY]