Chinatrust Real Estate Co (中信房屋), one of Taiwan’s leading real-estate agencies, said yesterday that the property market in Greater Kaohsiung has good potential for growth on the back of a strong rebound in the domestic economy.
The Dec. 25 merger of -Kaohsiung city and county into a special municipality and the policy of the city government to boost the property market are paving the way for further growth in property assets, Chinatrust Real Estate said.
According to the property agency, land prices in the former Kaohsiung City’s 11 districts assessed by the city government last month rose 2.31 percent on average from a year earlier.
In particular, land prices in Gushan District (鼓山) posted the largest increase of 3.37 percent, followed by increases of between 2.19 percent and 2.87 percent in the Sanmin (三民), Nanzih (楠梓), Zuoying (左營) and Lingya (苓雅) districts.
Currently, home prices in average communities in the city range between NT$70,000 (US$2,412) and NT$100,000 per ping (3.3m2), while luxury residential property prices are about NT$300,000 to NT$400,000 per ping, according to Chinatrust Real Estate.
Chinatrust Real Estate said that compared with Taipei City, property prices in Greater Kaohsiung remain relatively low.
Last year, Kaohsiung recorded 27,969 property transactions, up 10.95 percent from 2009, according to statistics compiled by the city’s land administration division.
Separately, Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) said -yesterday that it is scheduled to list its global depositary receipts (GDRs) on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Farglory said it has issued 43 million GDRs for the listing, each of which represents two common shares of the company, which has been listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange since August 2007.
The price of the GDRs has been set at US$4.8906 each, representing a 7.9 percent discount on Farglory’s closing share price on on Thursday on the local main board.
Farglory is the first Taiwanese property developer to issue GDRs, the company said.
Through the GDR sale, Farglory raised US$210 million and is planning to use the fund for four property development projects in China, it said.
The four development projects are in Nanjing, Tianjin, Suzhou and Fujian Province, Farglory said.
The property developer had previously planned to issue US$200 million in GDRs, but the market showed enthusiasm toward the issuance, prompting the company to sell a further US$10 million in depositary receipts.
Because of the GDR sale, Farglory’s paid-in capital has been expanded by 9.2 percent to NT$7.71 billion, while foreign investors hold a 21.7 percent stake in the company, up from the previous 14.5 percent.
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