The Grade A office market in Taipei has recovered from the global financial crunch, although few transactions were seen in the first quarter of the year, traditionally a slow period, international real-estate service provider Jones Lang LaSalle said yesterday.
The overall vacancy rate in the office market dropped to 15 percent in the first quarter from 16.1 percent in the previous quarter, the company said, adding that the pace of companies returning leased space had eased thanks to decreasing office rent costs.
“The first quarter of this year recorded a positive net take-up for the second successive quarter at 5,898 ping (19,463.4m²), an improvement from the previous quarter,” Tony Chao (趙正義), managing director of the company’s Taipei branch, told a media briefing.
But Chao said the current net take-up came from leasing contracts in the second half of last year and that some well-known foreign enterprises were planning to relocate to the outskirts of Taipei City, which will lead to accumulated returning space of 25,000 ping in the Grade A office market.
“To save rental costs, some enterprises are likely to move out to suburban areas such as Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港), where there is easy access to public transportation, shops and services,” said Sherry Wu (吳瑤華), director of the realtor’s commercial property market department.
“This trend may have a severe impact on the Grade A office market,” she said.
The overall rental rate for office space declined slightly by 0.16 percent to NT$2,367 per ping a month in the first quarter with the Dunhua South district seeing a small rebound at 1.41 percent to reach NT$2,355 per ping a month, the company’s data showed.
In the first quarter, NT$14 billion (US$443 million) worth of investment-grade properties changed hands, the report said, adding that three life insurers, including Cathay Life (國泰人壽), China Life (中國人壽) and Bank Taiwan Life (台銀人壽), were involved in transactions that accounted for NT$4.8 billion.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
TikTok abounds with viral videos accusing prestigious brands of secretly manufacturing luxury goods in China so they can be sold at cut prices. However, while these “revelations” are spurious, behind them lurks a well-oiled machine for selling counterfeit goods that is making the most of the confusion surrounding trade tariffs. Chinese content creators who portray themselves as workers or subcontractors in the luxury goods business claim that Beijing has lifted confidentiality clauses on local subcontractors as a way to respond to the huge hike in customs duties imposed on China by US President Donald Trump. They say this Chinese decision, of which Agence
RSS