Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) yesterday reported more than 30 percent month-on-month growth in sales of luxury residential properties in greater Taipei last month, adding that the sales hit a 21-month high.
“Sales of [our] luxury properties [in December] saw a limited impact from the central bank’s earlier warning that the upscale market may be overheating,” Greg Yeh (葉國華), an adviser to the realtor, said by phone yesterday.
In Taipei, the realtor’s sales of top-tier luxury homes in Da-an (大安), Zhongzheng (中正), Xinyi (信義), Dazhi (大直) and Tianmu (天母) districts worth more than NT$30 million (US$940 million) per unit grew 36.5 percent month-on-month last month, with closing prices climbing 5.2 percent to average at a record-high NT$728,000 per ping, the realtor said in a statement.
Sales of second-tier luxury homes in the city jumped 30.5 percent from November, although their closing prices experienced a meager decline of 3.3 percent at the same time to average NT$546,000 per ping, the statement said.
“The government’s decision to levy taxes on luxury properties may have scared away some buyers of second-tier properties,” the realtor said, adding that the central bank’s curb on the sector may have driven down the prices.
“But in general, the move will improve the health of the nation’s property market,” the realtor said.
Meanwhile, the realtor’s sales of luxury homes in Taipei County’s Sindian (新店), Yonghe (永和), Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) worth more than NT$20 million per unit grew 36.3 percent, with closing prices averaging a record-high NT$398,000 per ping, representing 4.3 percent growth.
Banking on the government’s closer ties with China, the nation’s upscale property market is expected to see a further boom in the near future with business owners at home and from China seen as potential buyers, Yeh said.
The segment’s price hikes, however, may slow down while the price discrepancy between top-tier luxury homes with a good location and their second-tier peers may widen, he said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure