I’m sure that the people complaining about this fully planned on bragging to friends and family about the profits they’d make because they were such a smart investor.
Meanwhile, in Taipei, there will be a protest by the Snails without Shells at the most expensive location in Taipei.
The property developers in both China and Taiwan are a fairly unscrupulous bunch and consumers who buy based directly on the developers’ sales pitches are likely to get gouged in the current markets. This does not mean that there are not still values waiting to be found by savvy buyers in both Taiwan and China’s real estate markets.
Given the overall price level both places, you would need to be extremely savvy.
I just wish the Government would get a reality injection. They really need to build cheaper housing for the 80% who earn less than 50,000NT a month. You can not continue to rely on Parents/relatives to fund every house purchase…otherwise you would have to be looking after said parents forever and not be able to have your own lives…oh wait… 
How about stopping pushing the market up and try to get it a little lower instead? Taiwan is not short of housing.
How about stopping pushing the market up and try to get it a little lower instead? Taiwan is not short of housing.[/quote]
I think it is short of Housing priced under 5 million. Thousands of new places are being built in the 20-70 million NT price-range and ,certainly in Taichung, purely investment vehicles and mostly empty. Very few builders want to build cheaper houses because they make less money. Government has to legislate for that to happen.
How about stopping pushing the market up and try to get it a little lower instead? Taiwan is not short of housing.[/quote]
I think it is short of Housing priced under 5 million. Thousands of new places are being built in the 20-70 million NT price-range and ,certainly in Taichung, purely investment vehicles and mostly empty. Very few builders want to build cheaper houses because they make less money. Government has to legislate for that to happen.[/quote]
Not so. They build lots of 25 ping 3 bedroom places, Sanxia is nothing but. What needs to happen is that the pricing needs to come down. It will happen.
I can’t imagine a three bedroom for under 5 million in the Taipei area. I just looked around on 591; almost nothing under 6-some million in Sanxia, even in the more remote parts of it without public transit.
Yeah, but those are the asking prices. You need to look at the actual transaction prices–much lower, and the gap between the two is widening as most homebuyers choose to stand on the sidelines to observe the market, and those who are making an offer are really lowballing it. I’d say give it a year or two. 
How about stopping pushing the market up and try to get it a little lower instead? Taiwan is not short of housing.[/quote]
I think it is short of Housing priced under 5 million. Thousands of new places are being built in the 20-70 million NT price-range and ,certainly in Taichung, purely investment vehicles and mostly empty. Very few builders want to build cheaper houses because they make less money. Government has to legislate for that to happen.[/quote]
Not so. They build lots of 25 ping 3 bedroom places, Sanxia is nothing but. What needs to happen is that the pricing needs to come down. It will happen.[/quote]
In Taichung the vast majority of new housing has been in the luxury bracket, its a bit different than Taoyuan of course. They are bank accounts in the sky and empty apartments that serve as vacation places for overseas Taiwanese.
You can get a fairly reasonable price in older areas, not so in the North of Taiwan.
BTW there is no way you can have 3 bedrooms in 25 ping, that’s a joke.
[quote=“headhonchoII”]
BTW there is no way you can have 3 bedrooms in 25 ping, that’s a joke.[/quote]
Sorry, but that’s not true - unless you’re talking about the “25 ping” place that’s actually only 17 because 8 of it is 公設. My place is 25 pings (older 公寓), three bedrooms and it feels quite comfortable and roomy enough.
I’m curious as to what housing finance looks like in Taiwan. Do people routinely put down payments in at the 10%? 20%? 30%? Or higher ranges? Do lenders look at the borrower’s monthly debt to income ratio? And if so what is the normal allowed amount (28%? 36%? 40%?). I’m not in the market to buy any property in Taiwan but am curious.
I have a friend from China who told me that while housing costs are really high many places, a lot of foreigners don’t realize that if you are a Chinese person who works for a Chinese company as a full time regular employee (not an independent contractor, which covers a lot of people), then the government will actually give you substantial financial assistance towards your mortgage payment. My friend explained it as somewhat similar to social security or unemployment payments in the sense that this was a government entitlement program fund by employers and payroll taxes. Am trying to research the details.
Also seen it done here in Kaohsiung.
I have even seen apartments that are advertised as having 3 bedrooms but only sold with two in-built bedrooms. They come with a larg(ish) living room and if you really want the third bedroom you have to pay extra to put the wall in to split your living room in half.
[quote=“Zhengzhou2010”]I’m curious as to what housing finance looks like in Taiwan. Do people routinely put down payments in at the 10%? 20%? 30%? Or higher ranges? Do lenders look at the borrower’s monthly debt to income ratio? And if so what is the normal allowed amount (28%? 36%? 40%?). I’m not in the market to buy any property in Taiwan but am curious.
I have a friend from China who told me that while housing costs are really high many places, a lot of foreigners don’t realize that if you are a Chinese person who works for a Chinese company as a full time regular employee (not an independent contractor, which covers a lot of people), then the government will actually give you substantial financial assistance towards your mortgage payment. My friend explained it as somewhat similar to social security or unemployment payments in the sense that this was a government entitlement program fund by employers and payroll taxes. Am trying to research the details.[/quote]
I guess what they do, and they do this in Taiwan and UK too, is give first time buyers or younger people lower interest loans. That unfortunately just increases nominal prices.
In Taiwan you get a tax break for first time home buyers.
That break benefits the sellers and the developers, it goes into the price. What can people pay?
Yeah, I’m always skeptical about tax credits or other public assistance to encourage homeownership. It just artificially raises prices which the homeowner winds up paying for in the end. It is hard to remove that public support later as well (if the govt was facing a budget crunch) as existing homeowners and developers would squeal about the resulting price decline.
Anyone have a sense of how much leverage Taiwanese homebuyers take on for a mortgage?
[quote=“Zhengzhou2010”]Yeah, I’m always skeptical about tax credits or other public assistance to encourage homeownership. It just artificially raises prices which the homeowner winds up paying for in the end. It is hard to remove that public support later as well (if the govt was facing a budget crunch) as existing homeowners and developers would squeal about the resulting price decline.
Anyone have a sense of how much leverage Taiwanese homebuyers take on for a mortgage?[/quote]
Banks are tightening up in my experience. Max LTV ratio on older places is 70%. Had to really push for this at BOT (they initially only offered 65%).
[quote]
Anyone have a sense of how much leverage Taiwanese homebuyers take on for a mortgage?
Banks are tightening up in my experience. Max LTV ratio on older places is 70%. Had to really push for this at BOT (they initially only offered 65%).[/quote]
Interesting:
Anyone know what % of homes are paid off vs those that are still being paid off?
Also, for the average home bought via the bank, what % of the house has been paid off.
I like it by the numbers…and trying to get a gauge on how much concrete is leveraged up in this jungle.
I’m aware Taipei, Taiwan has possibly the highest (house price / average household income earned) ratio in the world.