Interest in residential property lingers: poll

Based on the results of an Internet survey carried out by the company, 64 percent of the people questioned, compared to only 50 percent last year, showed a willingness to buy a house before the end of this year.

The optimism reflected in the survey contrasted markedly with the current bearish mood of the local real estate market, which has been affected by Taiwan’s sluggish economic environment in recent months.

Both housing prices and number of real estate transactions have been down lately, company officials noted.

The survey found, however, that prospective buyers this year are more interested in purchasing a home for their own use rather than as an investment, as a large number of the respondents, or 23 percent of the total, were young men and women planning to get married who want to live in an area affording them a better quality of life.

Only around 15 percent of the potential buyers said they would purchase a house as an investment, down from 20 percent at the same time last year.

Most of those residing in the northern Taiwan counties of Taipei and Taoyuan who were looking at buying a home remaining more willing to purchase a house in the greater Taipei area — the most expensive region across the country — out of employment and transportation concerns, the survey discovered.

With this in mind, some 68 percent of the respondents said they would buy a house worth less than NT$10 million, mainly in the price range between NT$7.99 million and NT$5 million, followed by houses valued between NT$4.99 million and NT$3 million.

Fifty percent of the survey’s respondents said they are first-time buyers, with most of them from the Hsinchu, Taipei and Kaohsiung areas, the poll indicated.

Sinyi Realty Estate’s survey results was based on 1,212 valid questionnaires and had a margin of error of 2.6 percent.

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