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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》House-buying willingness drops to five-year low: poll
People walk past the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall and Taipei 101 on Saturday. Photo: CNA
By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter
People’s willingness to buy new houses fell to a five-year low this month amid central bank rate hikes and concerns over a possible recession, a Cathay Financial Holding Co （國泰金控） survey showed yesterday.
Seventy-two percent of the 19,821 respondents polled from July 1 to 7 said it was not the right time to purchase a house, while only 14 percent thought otherwise, the survey showed.
It is the fourth consecutive month that house-buying willingness decreased, it showed.
The survey also showed that Taiwanese held an increasingly conservative outlook on the economy, with the dedicated index falling to its lowest in 12 months.
About 56 percent expected the economy to deteriorate over the next six months, with only 21 percent expecting an improvement, the survey showed.
Respondents were also less willing to make big-ticket purchases and fewer people expected a raise than in previous polls, the survey showed.
The indices for the two items turned negative, suggesting that most people were planning to spend a lower share of their income on big-ticket purchases and respondents predicted a pay cut rather than a raise, it showed.
People were also less positive about selling real estate, with more than 50 percent saying that now is not the time to do so, causing the gauge for housing transactions to drop to its lowest in the past eight months, it showed.
“Overall, consumers now have less interest in both buying and selling houses,” Cathay Financial said.
More than half of the respondents expected Taiwanese equities to tumble in the next six months, with only 22 percent still holding a positive outlook for local stocks, the survey showed.
Only 19 percent said they would continue buying stocks, while 33 percent said they had lower interest in doing so and 47 percent said they would maintain their portfolio unchanged, the survey showed.
As there are more people planning to leave the stock market than planning to continue investing, the index of stock investment turned negative, the first time since July 2020, the survey showed.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
