Eight leading members of Beijing-based China National Real Estate Development Group (
"China National Real Estate and Far Glory Group (遠雄集團) are expected to discuss cross-strait real-estate cooperation on Thursday [today]," said Tsai Chung-i (蔡宗易), assistant vice president of Far Glory's business management department.
The two real-estate conglomerates, which respectively own 60 billion yuan (US$7.25 billion) and NT$100 billion (US$2.95 billion) in assets, may sign a memorandum of understanding to foster cross-strait exchange, stimulating Taiwan's stagnant property market, Tsai added.
During the first day of their eight-day trip, the Chinese delegation toured the yet-to-be-completed Taipei 101 office building, Neihu Technology Park (內湖科技園區) and Metropolitan Construction Co (大都市建設), a Far Glory subsidiary.
The delegation will visit other residential and industrial properties in central Taichung and southern Kaohsiung later this week, Tsai said.
Metropolitan general manager Hung Chia-sheng (
Far Glory chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (
"Many mainland Chinese, if allowed to emigrate, may also be interested in buying houses here since prices are low," Chao told the Taipei Times recently.
But market watchers are not so optimistic.
"The likelihood of Chinese capital being injected into the local property market is slim," Billy Yen (
China won't allow capital investments to Taiwan, and Taiwan will set up a regulatory hurdles to make it more difficult for Chinese capital to enter the local market, Yen said.
The economic incentive for Chinese investors to bank on Taiwan's real-estate market is also small since the return on investments in Shanghai residential property markets is double that of Taipei's, Yen said, citing DTZ data.
Sharing a similar view, Chang Chin-oh (
But Chang was optimistic about China National Real Estate's visit here.
"China National Real Estate may only come here to test the waters, but it's a sign of improving cross-strait relations," Chang said.
After Taiwan lifted restrictions to allow Chinese capital to invest in properties here last year, only one deal has been closed by Chinese investors, while many Taiwanese are interested in shopping for houses in Shanghai.
Fu Don-cheng (
"A free outflow of capital from China has not been facilitated yet," he said.
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