Property purchase deals by Chinese investors dip to 9 in Q3

The number of property purchase deals by Chinese investors in Taiwan for the third quarter of this year fell to just nine, according to statistics released Friday by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI).

The MOI's Department of Land Administration said that the number of property purchase deals by investors from China dropped to a single digit for the first time since the third quarter of 2014, when the figure also stood at nine.

The statistics show that the figure for the July-September period of this year also fell to a new low since the first quarter of 2014, when the number of property purchases by Chinese investors stood at only seven.

In the first nine months of this year, the number totaled 50, including 20 in the first quarter and 21 in the second quarter. The 50 deals fell below the 57 recorded over the same period of last year.

In 2015, the number of property purchase deals by Chinese investors hit 86, according to the data.

Despite the fall in the number of deals in the third quarter, the average purchasing value in the three-month period rose to a nine-quarter high of NT$37.498 million (US$1.19 million), the data shows.

According to the MOI, Taiwan has lifted a ban on Chinese investment in the country's property market since August 2002, in a bid to energize the local property market.

Since 2002, the aggregate number of purchase deals by Chinese investors has totaled only 317, valued at at total of NT$5.17 billion, the MOI data shows.

H&B Business Group (?????), one of the leading real estate agencies in Taiwan, said the figure shows that property buyers from China are less enthusiastic than the local market has expected.

During the period, their purchases were concentrated in the major metropolitan areas, H&B's head of research Hsu Chia-hsin (???) said.

According to the H&B data, 25 deals were carried out in Taipei, the most closely watched property market in Taiwan, 75 in New Taipei, the most populous city in the country, 34 in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan, 47 in Taichung in central Taiwan, and 92 in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan.

Hsu said that most Chinese property buyers in Taiwan own their homes for self-dwelling purposes.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel