Taiwan

National indices still climbed into 2025 Q3 (Trading Economics housing index 168.73), but the market became more two-speed: city-level measures show year-on-year declines in places like New Taipei (-0.1%) and Taoyuan (-3.72%) in Q3 2025 after strong gains a year earlier, consistent with late-cycle cooling and affordability pressure. Supply-side sentiment also softened: 591 data cited by Taipei Times estimated the 2025 fall sales-season value of new housing projects in the six special municipalities plus Hsinchu at NT$710.65bn, a record 30% drop from the prior year as mortgage rules tightened. Forward-looking broker surveys at end-2025 pointed to volume consolidation under tight mortgage conditions, implying flat-to-softer pricing unless credit conditions loosen materially.

AI adoption is shifting from experiments to core workflow in Taiwan's housing platforms. Addcn Technology (operator of 591) reported implementing AI-driven monetization strategies in 2024 and set a 2025 plan to deepen AI applications and improve operational efficiency across mature platforms. Industry coverage also highlighted AI-powered upgrades on 591. On the consumer side, productization is visible in immersive viewing and AI-assisted discovery: 591 promotes 720 panoramic viewing and map/transit search; Sinyi and Yungching market AI online viewing; 5168 positions AI price-checking; and Taiwan Realty Group promotes a patented AI real-estate robot. 2025 expectation: more automated listing enrichment (image/description QA), conversational search, and faster price guidance-paired with growing pressure to document data sources and model outputs under tighter privacy governance.

Taiwan continues to strengthen market transparency and anti-speculation controls that directly affect listing integrity. Actual Price Registration 2.0 reforms removed sectionalized/anonymized disclosure and moved toward full disclosure of house numbers and land parcel numbers; they also gave competent authorities stronger examination powers and imposed prompt presale reporting (e.g., filing transaction information within 30 days). These reforms also created a 'red slips' administration system that prohibits resale of presale reservation contracts, with fines up to NTD1,000,000. Open data supports verification: real estate actual price registration datasets are published on data.gov.tw and updated frequently (e.g., every 10 days), enabling portals and consumers to benchmark asking prices against realized transactions. Holding-cost policy tightens in 2025 because House Hoarding Tax 2.0 (House Tax Act amendment) is implemented from July 1, 2024 with tax collection starting May 2025, raising rates for non-self-use multi-home ownership. For advertising, the Fair Trade Commission has dedicated rules/guidelines for real-estate advertising that prohibit false or misleading representations, creating compliance exposure for portals and brokers that allow low-integrity listings.

For 2024-2025, the most visible consolidation signals have been strategic refocusing and platform investment rather than headline portal-to-portal M&A. Addcn Technology disclosed resource reallocation and a move away from underperforming assets (including transitioning away from Hong Kong 591) while prioritizing AI-driven growth in mature platforms. Taiwan's broader corporate M&A climate has been active (including major financial holding consolidation approved by the FSC), which can indirectly affect housing finance competitiveness and credit supply. Real estate transaction deal flow has also been linked to tech-sector expansion and asset revitalisation themes in 2024-2025, supporting localized demand nodes even as overall housing volumes cool.

Three regulatory currents shape the 2025 operating environment for portals, brokers and investors: (1) credit tightening, (2) anti-speculation/holding-cost changes, and (3) higher data/privacy accountability. The central bank's selective credit controls (including the September 2024 seventh amendment) and its moral suasion request to banks to strengthen internal quantitative control on overall real estate loans for 2024Q4-2025Q4 are key demand-side constraints. House Hoarding Tax 2.0 under the House Tax Act raises carrying costs for non-self-use multi-home owners, with tax collection beginning in 2025. Transaction transparency rules under Actual Price Registration 2.0 expanded disclosure (house and parcel numbers), strengthened presale reporting, and created enforceable constraints on presale 'red slip' resale. Meanwhile, privacy governance is upgrading: major amendments to the PDPA were promulgated in November 2025, and the PDPC is identified as the competent authority-raising expectations for portals to document lawful collection/use of user and listing data and to harden security controls.