Taiwan property prices will continue to decline through to the end of this year, according to a government survey.

The property-market leading indicator, which gauges conditions for the coming three quarters, dropped 1.96 percent in the three months to December, the third consecutive decline, the Ministry of the Interior said in a report Monday.

“Right now, we don’t see any really positive signs,” said Chang Chin-oh (張金鶚), Director of the Taiwan Real Estate Research Centre at National Chengchi University in Taipei which conducted the survey. “The market will keep falling until the end of the year.”

Rising unemployment, a sustained economic recession and a drop in consumer confidence will continue to put pressure on the property market, the ministry said in a statement. The property market’s coincidence index, which charts current conditions, fell 0.1 percent for the fourth quarter while an index of property investments fell 2.2 percent, it said.

Taiwan’s economy contracted 8.36 percent in the fourth quarter in 2008 with the government last month revising down its full- year outlook to a 2.97 percent decline from a November 2008 estimate for 2.12 percent growth. Unemployment climbed to a record 5.63 percent last month.