Taoyuan Nights

The Taipei Times writes:

“The latest statistics from the Ministry of the Interior showed that the number of property transfers declined by 35 percent to 26,527 in August from 40,839 in May when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office. Sales in Kaohsiung City, Taipei City and Taichung City in August saw some of the biggest drops of 45.9 percent, 42.7 percent and 41.4 percent respectively since May.”

but here’s the amazing bit - Taiwanese businessmen are EXPANDING their investment into this contracting market. Unbelievable.

“But at the same time, the sector continued to expand by opening a total of 4,057 outlets in August, up 5.1 percent from 3,861 stores in May. Despite a worsening market, such expansion has shown no signs of slowing down as the nation’s total number of realtor outlets continued to climb to 4,139 this month, Evertrust Rehouse said.”

Apparently… “the sector is appalled to find the unexpected acceleration of such a slowdown, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the earthquake of Sept. 21, 1999.”

So much for the widely held idea that the north and south of Taiwan are separate property markets…