TAIPEI (TVBS NEWS) － Rising interest rates for housing mortgages make owning a home an even more elusive dream for many Taiwanese, including Ms. Chang, an office worker and a mom of three. After being married for over ten years, her family is still unable to buy a house.
"I have been renting a home since my university days. Afterward, I had three children," said the home renter. "The spending increased year by year. So, we did consider whether we should buy a house first."
"But in fact, the down payment is a large sum of money. And each month, the monthly mortgage will be another large amount of spending. Of course, you can buy a house, but your quality of life will likely not be as good as it is now. So, in the end, we decided to continue renting," she added.
Many in Taiwan face the same problem. For people in the "in between" categories － those who cannot pass for social housing nor buy a house － renting a home has become their only option.
Huang Deng-yang, a real estate broker, remarked that the "in between" age group falls between 30 to 45 years old. Those with newborns, or those who live with elders at home, have a certain amount of pressure to purchase a home. For this category, more end up choosing to rent a home."
Mr. Hong bought a small apartment in New Taipei around three years ago, but as the market has entered a cycle of rising interest rates, he feels overwhelmed by trying to pay off his mortgage loans every month.
"In the beginning, the mortgage loan was about NT$19,000 a month, and now it has risen to almost NT$22,000. It just keeps stacking up. Since an amount is automatically deducted from my bank account, it wasn't until I received mail from the bank that my balance was insufficient that I realized interest rates had increased again," he said.
"So, when my salary has not been raised and adjusted, and the central bank is increasing interest rates faster than the growth in our salary, I feel overwhelmed," he added.
If we look at the national mortgage burden rate released by the Ministry of the Interior in the second quarter of this year, it has reached a new high of 39.62%, an increase of 3.35% over the same period last year. And there is a great chance of interest rates continuing to rise until the end of the year.
Yeh Guo-hua, general manager of Ubee, explained that "the U.S. Federal Reserve has raised interest rates five times for mortgage loans this year. In this case, Taiwan's central bank will also follow these steps." After the interest rate rises, the Taiwanese public feels increasing pressure as their budgets get tighter and tighter.