Realtors welcome opening to China

Local realtors yesterday welcomed the government's plan to ease policy restrictions to attract Chinese investment in the commercial property market.

"It'll be a big boost to the commercial property market, where the prices of office buildings are relatively low compared with other Asian cities," said Billy Yen (顏炳立), general manager of DTZ Debenham Tie Leung International Property Advisers (戴德梁行).

Quoting a high-ranking Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official, the Chinese-language China Times yesterday reported that the government was finalizing its plan to ease restrictions on Chinese investments in the local commercial property market.

Should the policy-easing measures take effect immediately, the local commercial real estate market is likely to see a minimum of 20 percent growth by the year's end after having risen by 30 percent in the past year, Yen said.

He said these measures could also help stimulate domestic demand and prop up the value of local leisure and tourism facilities if restrictions on Chinese tourists' Taiwan-bound trips were further relaxed.

The China Times report also quoted the MAC official as saying that Chinese investors would soon be allowed to take out mortgage loans based on 50 percent of the property's worth.

Yen questioned the proposed limit on bank loans as Chinese investors would be using foreign capital for investment, saying banks usually extend loans of up to 80 percent of the property's value.

However, Chinese investors will not be allowed to buy residential properties and hotels as the Chinese government does not allow them to do so.

Chinese investors would be allowed to visit Taiwan for a maximum of 90 days to handle property transactions -- up from the current 10 days but no more than 30 days a year -- the newspaper reported.

The government opened the property market to Chinese investors in 2002, but the number of transactions has been low owing to strict restrictions.

The new policy-easing measures could invigorate the local property market, said Sherry Wu (吳瑤華), director of commercial property of the Taiwan branch of Jones Lang LaSalle (仲量聯行), a US-based real estate services and money management firm.

She said, that after the new measures are implemented, the scale of the commercial property market -- which reached NT$120 billion (US$3.78 billion) last year -- could double.

Wu said many Chinese investors, who were attracted to the high returns on property investment in Taiwan, had visited the country over the past several years to explore business opportunities here, but failed to close any deals due to the government's restrictions.

Chang Chin-o (張金顎), a professor at National Chengchi University's land economics department, however, warned yesterday that the new measures would only serve as a short-term stimulus.

Chang said the measures were unlikely to solve the real estate sector's problems.

Chang said that the oversupply of residential properties -- which many local residents cannot afford -- was a problem that could not be solved by foreign capital.