The commercial property market in Taipei City grew steadily in the second quarter, supported by increasing investment in Neihu and Nangang districts, a report by CB Richard Ellis Ltd (CBRE) Taiwan said yesterday.
Propelled by the improving economy, the business property market -- in both investment and office leasing -- in Taipei was buoyant in the last quarter and is expected to continue performing well, the report said.
With the technology cluster effect and improving infrastructure, Neihu and Nangang have attracted an increasing number of investors seeking commercial property, CBRE said.
Transactions concluded in the districts during the second quarter included China Life Insurance (中國人壽), which purchased the Everelite Technology Co's (艾群科技) office building in Nangang Software Park (南港軟體工業園區) for NT$428 million (US$13 million) and then leased office space to Everelite, the report said.
Although the benchmark interest rate increased 0.25 percent to 3.125 percent last month, the rate is still considered low and will not deter institutional investors, the real estate firm said.
Supply of Grade A office space in Taipei remained at 427,352 ping (1.3 million square meters) for the seventh consecutive quarter as no major office buildings were completed, the report said.
The overall vacancy rate slightly dropped to 9 percent and is expected to further decrease with the absence of new supply and steadily growing demand, it said.
The average monthly rent for Grade A offices in Taipei rose 1.7 percent to NT$2,341 per ping in the last quarter, the report said. Xinyi District continued to lead the Grade A office leasing market with the highest monthly rent of NT$2,489 per ping, up NT$15 from the first quarter. Dunhua S Road and Renai Road circle were a close second.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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