Only big earners eligible for Treasure units

Only billionaires will be able to afford an apartment at The Palace (帝寶), now under construction in central Taipei.

The complex, launched by Hung Sheng Construction Ltd (宏盛建設) four years ago on the former site of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) headquarters and the Broadcasting Corp of China (中廣), will be the nation's most expensive luxury residence, with selling prices ranging between NT$130 million and NT$300 million per unit.

It will also be one of the more secure housing estates, with features such as gun sensors, a pulse-tracking system and a 500m moat around its imposing exterior.

"Heads of local multinationals have expressed a high interest in moving in," Eric Kung (龔宇源), vice president of Hung Sheng, said yesterday, although he refused to disclose who some potential tenants might be due to privacy concerns.

While speculation around the market has been that the NT$25 billion project is only 40 percent sold, Kung boasted that the company has closed on 60 percent of the units and will hit the 80 percent mark before the year's end.

"The project targets high income people, whose buying decisions have less to do with the depressed property market," Kung said.

The Palace, located beside the intersection of Renai Road and Chienkuo S Road, faces the verdant and spacious boulevard, something rarely found in downtown Taipei.

Sitting on a 5,600-ping parcel of land, The Palace will be composed of six residential buildings, with heights of 18, 23 and 28 floors, and a "six-star" recreational club -- complete with a ballroom -- and is expected to be finished in the second quarter of next year.

Each unit, measuring between 160 and 260 pings and occupying a single floor, has an average selling price of approximately NT$1 million per ping -- nearly 25 percent more than that of neighboring residential projects, which average NT$800,000 per ping.

Hung Sheng got a bargain when it purchased the land from the KMT for as little as NT$9 billion in 2000. At the time many Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians criticized former KMT treasurer Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), accusing him of taking kickbacks for the deal, which they said was worth between NT$12 billion and NT$15 billion.

Hung Sheng spent over NT$20 billion to create the luxury compound, embedding more than 1,000 earthquake-proof dampers and using a design by well-known Japanese architect Tange Kenzo, who designed the Tokyo City Hall Complex.

That is why The Palace apartments are not cheap, Kung said.

"There is no other developer like Hung Sheng, which spends a minimum of NT$60,000/per ping alone on raw materials for its buildings," Kung said.

As the project's completion date draws near, more potential luxury home buyers are expressing an interest in the complex.

A saleswoman at the project said that approximately six buyers show up at the site on weekends, adding "more shoppers, who appear to be businesspeople, have been coming since mid-May."

Both Victor Chang (張欣民), director of the research and development division at Sinyi Real Estate Inc (信義房屋), and Billy Yen (顏炳立), general manager of DTZ Debenham Tie Leung International Property Advisers, praised the project yesterday, saying it would be a worthwhile buy given its good location.

Chang said that the project will be an indicator of a rebounding property market.