Cooperative Bank sees Taiwan housing market stuck with fewer sales and stable prices

Taiwan’s housing market may be showing more transactions, but Cooperative Bank says the increase does not yet signal a full recovery. Much of the recent rise in home transfers comes from presale properties reaching the handover stage.

The bank expects home-buying demand to gradually return to owner-occupied purchases in the second half of the year. Activity in the resale market could recover relatively faster, while buyers remain cautious about presale properties. The overall market is therefore expected to continue in a pattern of fewer transactions and largely stable prices.

Loan activity also reflects the earlier presale cycle. Cooperative Bank reported mortgage balances of about NT$893.5 billion at the end of July, up roughly NT$11 billion, or 1.34%, from the end of last year. Growth mainly came from New Qing An loans and mortgages tied to completed presale homes. The bank said it currently has no backlog in mortgage disbursements.

The New Qing An program’s transition also points to a return toward normal lending levels. Disbursements reached NT$6.3 billion in July, driven by demand to join the previous version before it ended. After New Qing An 3.0 began, August disbursements were estimated at about NT$4 billion.

Construction and land-development loans stood at more than NT$155 billion at the end of July, about NT$2 billion below the year-end level, while still rising 4.4% year on year. Citing property-lending concentration limits and Article 72-2 of Taiwan’s Banking Act, Cooperative Bank said it would lend cautiously, focusing on reputable builders and urban-renewal or aging-building reconstruction projects.