Taiwan’s first official housing index was introduced July 23 by Taipei City Government as part of public sector efforts promoting healthy development of the local real estate market.
“By providing market information that is fair, objective and transparent, the initiative will help bring residents of the ROC capital up to speed on market trends while stopping residential property prices from being artificially inflated,” Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin said.
“This monthly benchmark is a strong first step in the right direction,” Hau said, adding that the city government will continue adjusting the measure and introducing a more detailed index for homebuyers and other market participants.
Using information compiled between August 2012 and April 2013 from the real estate transaction database maintained by the Department of Land Administration under the Ministry of the Interior, the index shows the city’s average home price is NT$13.35 million (US$445,000), up 6.7 percent from last August.
The transaction price per ping, or 3.3 square meters, averaged NT$490,900. Among the city’s 12 administrative districts, Da-an leads the way at NT$838,800, followed by Zhongzheng and Xinyi at NT$735,000 and NT$685,000, respectively.
Nangang, Songshan and Zhongshan posted the fastest growth rates, averaging 12.38 percent over the same period.
According to the mayor, most housing indexes available in Taiwan are run by individual real estate agents and subject to influence by such factors as location, property quality and seasonality.
“The official index is more comprehensive as it is based on actual transaction prices,” Hau said, adding that the larger database also makes the index less volatile and more reliable.
The city government’s latest initiative is one of many policy measures and public campaigns aimed at checking the country’s soaring real estate prices. Others include a luxury tax introduced by the Ministry of Finance in June 2011, and the compulsory registration of real estate transaction prices with the MOI from last August.
Public response to these measures has been mixed. According to an online survey conducted by Taipei-based Grassroots Influence Foundation earlier this month, more than 60 percent of 855 respondents said the luxury tax had failed to bring down Taiwan’s housing prices.
But over half of them still support the measure, believing it to be necessary in damping transactions and reining in real estate prices.
A recent study by a local real estate agency group revealed that local housing market turnover grew 4.95 percent after compulsory registration took effect last August.
“Higher market transparency has actually quickened the transaction process as buyers and sellers are no longer in the dark,” the report said. (SFC-JSM)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw