Taipei residents pessimistic about home prices

The non-profit organization made the remarks while unveiling its second quarter housing demand poll.

The survey showed Taipei City’s housing price confidence index for the second quarter was 94.52. However, when benchmarked to the next 12-month period, the number declined to 65.79, the lowest since the institute first began conducting the poll and a significant drop from the 129.47 given during the first quarter.

A 100 score indicates a 50-50 split between housing optimists and pessimists, while a below-100 score shows pessimists outnumbering optimists.

“The numbers suggest that, as far as Taipei City is concerned, there is a discrepancy between current home prices and what homebuyers think they ought to be,” said Chang Chin-er, professor of National Chengchi University’s land administration department, who presided over the news conference.

But Chang said he was hardly surprised by the numbers. “Many people believe home prices in Taipei City were too high already, and it’s natural that they think home prices will go down soon,” he said.

The poll also found of Taiwan’s five major metropolitan areas, only Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung scored above 80 on price prospects over the next year.

“People find house prices in central and southern Taiwan are more on par with the property’s true value,” Chang said.

Among other findings of the survey were: a desire of homebuyers to purchase houses priced between NT$3 million and NT$6 million, an average 9.3 percent differential between a house’s selling price and closing price, and a seven percent decline in those seeking to purchase homes in Taipei City at over NT$12 million.

The survey is conducted on both homeowners and homebuyers, with the latter carrying a heavier weight on the poll, Chang said.

“That particular group serves as a more significant benchmark, as they are the ones seeking to buy a place to live,” he said.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email