TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan Central Bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) on Thursday (Oct. 17) warned a rush to buy homes could lead to a housing market bubble similar to China.

The Central Bank launched its seventh wave of real estate control measures in September, per UDN. “Our housing market is overheated,” Yang commented. 

During a report to the Legislative Yuan's Finance Committee, Yang was questioned by Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福) about the Central Bank’s measures to curb housing speculation. 

Yang said that reversing market sentiment is not easy. However, he hoped that the Central Bank's policies combined with the Ministry of Finance’s house hoarding tax and the Ministry of the Interior’s Equalization of Land Rights Act (平均地權條例), the market’s expectations will gradually shift, allowing for a soft landing in the housing market.

When asked whether the domestic housing market is facing a bubble, Yang said if the market expects housing prices to keep rising, people will be incentivized to buy homes, which can fuel a bubble.  

Yang said the bank is concerned that if the overheated housing market continues, it will harm the long-term sound development of real estate and threaten financial stability. He said the Central Bank acted preemptively to curb the expectation of rising housing prices.