The Ministry of Finance yesterday successfully auctioned eight plots of land by granting 50-year leases, from 12 plots of offer. Five of the plots that were sold are outside the Greater Taipei area.
The total cost of the eight projects reached NT$2.06 billion (US$70.36 million), marking a premium of NT$949.6 million from the initial price of NT$1.11 billion offered by the ministry.
Real-estate brokers said the results implied that leases had been more acceptable to local investors.
“Investors are more willing to bid for land not in the Greater Taipei area as long as the plots are in a good location and are square in shape,” Michael Wang (王維宏), an account manager at the asset division of Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), said in a statement.
Since it is harder to find buyers for leased land, Sinyi Realty said the results provided more evidence that domestic capital remains abundant.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) associate manager Jeffery Huang (黃增福) shared Wang’s views.
Huang said the fact that investors had bought leased land may help the ministry activate government-owned land assets, further solving the problem of land shortage in urban areas and boosting the regeneration of some old neighborhoods.
One of the plots of land auctioned by the ministry was in Kinmen County, the first time a plot located in Taiwan’s outlying islands had attracted buyers.
The National Property Administration said the ministry is scheduled to announce details of 10 other development projects for residential land in the first half of next year after yesterday’s encouraging results.
In related news, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) yesterday bought EnTie Commercial Bank’s (安泰銀行) office building in Neihu District for NT$1.39 billion (US$45.71 million), 16 percent higher than the floor price, bidding organizer DTZ said.
With seven floors above ground and two basement floors, the building has 2,118.9 ping (7,004.6 m2) of floor space on a 473 ping plot of land, DTZ said.
The offer translates into NT$1.5 billion per ping for the ground floor and NT$670,000 per ping for the other floors, DTZ said, adding that the building has 70 parking spaces.
Additional reporting by Crystal Hsu
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