News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 03 Oct 2008

Housing market expected to be slow for two to four years (Taiwan)

The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said the domestic housing market flashed "yellow-blue" light, representing a slowdown, in the second quarter of this year with the leading indicator slipping 2.96%, as well as predicting a much higher likelihood of a sluggish housing market after the first quarter of 2009.

 

An MOI survey shows that 66.1% of domestic realtors believe the local housing market will worsen in the fourth quarter of this year, hitting a five-year record high, as well as that 66.2% of local realtors blame the U.S. subprime loan crisis for the sluggish market.

 

M.C. Ho, director of the MOI's Architecture and Building Research Institute, urged local realtors and interested parties to be prudent as the domestic property market is headed for a definite downturn.

 

C.E. Chang, professor of the National Chengchi University, said the sharp decline in second-quarter leading indicators showed the domestic housing market is most likely headed for further slowdown after the first quarter 2009 without effective official counter-measures to be put in place.

 

Chang believes the slowdown in the domestic housing market will last three to five years, with the contraction having begun in the third quarter of last year.