The government’s proposed luxury tax, which passed the legislature’s Finance Committee review yesterday, has cast a shadow over the outlook for commercial properties in Taiwan, with foreign investors turning cautious, Jones Lang LaSalle said yesterday.
The international real-estate services provider, whose clientele includes the four Chinese banks with representative offices in Taiwan, said it welcomed the planned levy to help cool Taiwan’s property sector, but added that Singapore and Hong Kong exempt commercial properties from similar taxes.
“We believe government measures to stem speculation are positive for the property market in the long run,” Jones Lang LaSalle Taipei branch managing director Tony Chao (趙正義) told a media briefing.
However, Chao said he doubted it was necessary to extend the planned tax to commercial properties because investment needs drove their transactions in the first place and unforeseen risks could prompt divestments.
“Commercial property investors will have to factor in the risk of the tax expense if they have to resell properties within two years of purchase,” Chao said.
Commercial property deals by institutional investors normally arise from their medium and long-term investment needs, he said, adding that no one could predict when and where a crisis would strike.
Jones Lang LaSalle expects the proposed luxury tax, which would subject all properties resold within two years of purchase to a 10 percent levy, to benefit domestic life insurance companies.
“We expect the tax to weaken land prices by 10 percent to 20 percent, easing cost burdens on life insurers,” Jones Lang Lasalle investments and markets director Sherry Wu (吳瑤華) said.
Almost all local insurers have announced plans to increase their stakes in real-estate investments because of ample liquidity and a lack of better investment options.
They are interested in commercial buildings with 60 percent occupancy and 3 percent rental returns, Wu said.
“Products that meet these requirements are limited and will draw heated competition when they are put on the market,” she said.
Jones Lang LaSalle yesterday released its latest report on Taipei’s Grade A office market, which saw vacancies falling 2.6 percent to 14.97 percent in the first quarter, while rentals edged up 0.42 percent.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”