Agree with that.
My parents had a difficult start in life. Now, they are well-off but they still tour the supermarkets to save 10 cents left and right.
House is paid, they know I won’t need their financial help, but they can’t get out of their habits and start living a different life.
Somehow the saving mentality is ingrained (and yes, the home backyard is a hoarder paradise, 80s VW Jetta wheels (in case…), cracked kayak, bricks,…)
You got it. Taiwanese people have no idea how to enjoy life. This doesn’t matter for someone who doesn’t have money like me. But if one day I strike a gold vein, I’m out.
Guys, I am into saving as much as the next Oversize, eh, Overseas compatriot, but, gee, I gotta take a picture of this shack. I mean, there should be a limit.
I imagine the old lady’s hubby in a wheelchair or worse, lying in a bed, no way to move out, see the park outside… The only window is on the second floor.
沒圖沒真相. Pics.
I think it’s crazy they live in those old
crummy apartments cheek to jowl, instead of selling out and buying a house in the countryside. I’m talking about retired people, but I guess some
of them have multiple generations still
living there. They at least should kick down 80% of the housing stock in the cities , it’s no good for modern living or for old folks. Old folk can’t climb stars easily.
Are you talking about us, HH ? 
With the imminent ending of quantitative funny money next year after a six year run look for a lot of the hot air to be taken out of the Taipei real estate market, particularly when shaky loans become bad loans and some Taiwan banks begin to wobble. Should be interesting.
[quote]The imminent normalization of U.S. monetary policy may spell bad news for investors. How bad? According to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund, the shift could see market players lose 8%, or $3.8 trillion, on their bond portfolios.
The U.S. Federal Reserve will end its third round of quantitative easing, known as QE3, at a Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Oct. 28 and 29. The Fed has boosted its assets to an unprecedented $4.5 trillion through the three rounds of easing adopted since the global financial crisis erupted in 2008. The ultra-easy policy has not only shored up economic activity but also forcibly raised asset prices.
Since the Fed kicked off its quantitative easing push in November 2008, the correlation coefficient between its total assets and the S&P 500 stock index has risen to 0.97, meaning the correlation between the two is extremely strong because it is close to an absolute correlation of 1. Wall Street's record high marked in September is undeniably attributable to the central bank's unprecedentedly easy money policy.
It may be only natural, therefore, that the U.S. stock market has become fragile ahead of the end of QE3. "We expected that to happen," said Masatoshi Moriyama, a senior analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanly Securities.
Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen has continued to warn financial markets about an overheating in the high-yield bond market. High yields reflect the low credibility of issues. But yields have kept falling, enabling companies to raise funds on high bond prices regardless of their credibility.
The U.S. easy-money policy has created distortions around the globe. The Reserve Bank of Australia has issued a strong warning that the country's real estate market is overheated. The economic slowdown in China, Australia's biggest export market, has weakened the Australian economy. But Australia's property market continues to rise regardless, a typical symptom of an economic bubble.[/quote]We are over the top - the bottom is a decade away, I think.
The govt will support the local banks. I would think that they will try to make bad look good for the time being. Then you have poor access to credit and no growth for 10 years or until the financial system is back to health. 10 years of now growth, I think.
taipeitimes.com/News/biz/arc … 2003603377
taipeitimes.com/News/biz/arc … 2003603526
Which one is it?
[quote=“headhonchoII”]I think it’s crazy they live in those old
crummy apartments cheek to jowl, instead of selling out and buying a house in the countryside.[/quote]
As I’ve noted elsewhere, Taiwanese countryside is a synonym for “underdeveloped,” unlike in many countries where the rural areas are bucolic and pleasant. Moving from a city to the country is a huge drop in social status, and it’s just plain hard to find nice, clean places in little townships. Even if you do, it’s probably years away from the nearest city by car, not because of distance, but because county planners are simply incapable of laying strait roads.
taipeitimes.com/News/biz/arc … 2003603377
taipeitimes.com/News/biz/arc … 2003603526
Which one is it?[/quote]
Both, however on balance the second one is closest to the mark.
The journalists here are not excellent economists, so the issues are muddled up rather badly.
The important thing is that the monthly turnover of housing stock on the market is 11%, IE a house put up for sale is on the market for 9 months, this is falling.
The sellers set the price as high as they think they might be able to get away with on a good day. The buyers respond by not buying, basically, unless they have to.
The second piece basically tells us that some sellers cut prices in order to get rid of their properties, and that some buyrs responded.
if you hold them together, the picture looks bloody bleak.
Turnover rises in absolute terms, however falls in relative terms, meaning that a few more people bought, however people selling and new units being put up by the construction companies rose even more, meaning that more new supply came on line - the third quarter saw the third or fourth highest of new units being thrown on the market ever. (It seems that they left something out, who is editing this stuff?)
Most sellers believe the hype that the property market will keep on rising forever, so they set the price high, waiting for the bigger fool to come onto the scene. Some sellers are either afraid of the new luxury taxes, or are basically scared, or smart, so they lower their pricing in order to get rid of them.
it means that the supply is increasing, some people have bought, however the overhang and the debts in connection with the property market have if anything increased substantially - and the overhang will keep increasing well into 2015.
Basically, speculators are still buying in the relative affordable outskirts of Taipei, while people actually needing a flat buy elsewhere.
Still some froth left, now we just need the foreclosure numbers to keep increasing, and have the bank actioned houses kick the pricing down, and the great property wealth scheme will start to work in reverse.
When a market increases, it need not happen as a straight line, the same can be said when it falls.
We had a news story here recently that literally said something like “Housing transactions down in Q3.” Then an update came and said according to another source, housing transactions were up in all but Taipei. So which one is it? Nobody knows.
I suspect housing companies are not particularly keen about telling people that transactions are down, though.
[quote=“Hokwongwei”]We had a news story here recently that literally said something like “Housing transactions down in Q3.” Then an update came and said according to another source, housing transactions were up in all but Taipei. So which one is it? Nobody knows.
I suspect housing companies are not particularly keen about telling people that transactions are down, though.[/quote]
Follow the money.
A lot of the “research” on housing prices is sponsored by developers or real estate companies, surely they will be as objective as possible.
[quote=“Hokwongwei”]We had a news story here recently that literally said something like “Housing transactions down in Q3.” Then an update came and said according to another source, housing transactions were up in all but Taipei. So which one is it? Nobody knows.
I suspect housing companies are not particularly keen about telling people that transactions are down, though.[/quote]
I think the statistics are all online now, at least in Taipei they are on the government website. So I would blame crappy journalists on this confusion. remember many are shills for the property industry anyway, and quoting a real estate agent or developer is close to pointless. they are both spinning things whichever way they want to.
There’s no way there will not be QE4, the market depends on a climate of cheap money
What’s crazy is seeing all these old decrepit corpses who can barely stand upright owning nice places, while many kids have to live in annoying conditions
There’s no way there will not be QE4, the market depends on a climate of cheap money
What’s crazy is seeing all these old decrepit corpses who can barely stand upright owning nice places, while many kids have to live in annoying conditions[/quote]
Actually, the old decrepit shuffling corpses live in the places that barely stand upright but are well located/are within MRT radius even if it is 2025 MRT plan/have a KMT legislator as neighbor.
I know the ones near me, several of them even live completely alone in their nice place
Their families will end up with the places anyway, well they will be sold and redeveloped. Most older people live in gongyus. Once the MRT extends out more to places like Ankeng, Sanxia, Linkou and Taoyuan and Keelung things will get a lot fairer. Price rises are done in North Taiwan for next 10-20 years. Demographics are terrible here.
One hopes so. But what if the kids already have their lives made up abroad/don’t care about the stuff here as they have more than enough money? I know that is the story behind some really huge properties in Neihu, close to Costco.
And what if they do not have kids?
What about the negotiation process among families in gonyu anyways? I give it 30 years more…
There is an ad circulating on TV, making people aware that “for the sake of their parents, tear down gongyus, rebuild high rises, move the old folk to places with an elevator”. They present this idyllic picture of parks around the buildings, green areas, etc… As if we did not know any better! People would rather have concrete. And they are still waiting for someone to fork over a gazillion zillion dollars… sigh
I looked through the start of the thread,many including me believed things had essentially topped out. Some extraordinary things happened to fuel the boom further …quantitative easing and the change from 50% gift tax to 10% gift tax and inheritance laws were the things pulled out of the hat to juice everything. Then you had cross strait flights and the initiation of many new MRT lines and highways. They were some big changes that boosted prices to crazy levels following a brief lull in 2008. The only thing that could prop up this whole thing is some kind of China immigrant and investment visa . I guess some legislators and rich connected folk will be agitating for this, but I think this will be a much tougher trick to pull off than the inheritance/gift tax.
Also now there must be hundreds
of thousands apartments added to supply, so supply/demand part is getting more imbalanced (not that it has seemed to matter so far).