Developers and builders plan to launch more than NT$100 billion (US$3.27 billion) worth of presale housing projects over the next four weeks, on predictions the government is set to implement favorable policies to celebrate the anniversary of President Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration, online property researcher HouseFun said yesterday.
Presale housing projects in northern Taiwan worth NT$107 billion are on the market in time for the so-called “May 20 sales season” — which falls between May 15 and June 15 — as publicly listed real-estate companies endeavor to boost revenues despite sluggish sentiment, HouseFun head Ni Tze-jen (倪子仁) said.
The figure is virtually flat from last year when the market started to encounter headwinds it has yet to recover from, Ni said.
“Aware of the bleak sentiment, listed firms have delayed launching new projects so far this year... They decided to make moves now for fear continued inaction might drag down their earnings and share prices,” Ni said by telephone.
Eleven of the new projects were originally slated for the spring sales season, HouseFun said. They include a project in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) by Fubon Land Development Co (富邦建設), a development in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和) by Kindom Construction Corp (冠德建設) and a project in New Taipei City’s Yingge District (鶯歌) by Chong Hong Construction Co (長虹建設).
On the local bourse, shares in construction and building material companies have seen a 5.75 percent increase this year, compared with the TAIEX’s 2.92 percent gain, Taiwan Stock Exchange data show.
However, stock in mid-sized real-estate firms declined an average of 14.66 percent in over-the-counter trading on the local bourse during the same period, weaker than the GRETAI’s 1.19 percent retreat, data show.
There are 31 presale housing projects valued at more than NT$1 billion and 14 projects surpassing NT$3 billion, HouseFun said.
“Builders and developers might want to launch new projects in the first half, if action is necessary, since presidential and elective campaigns are expected to dominate the nation in the second half,” Ni said.
Taipei accounts for NT$20.9 billion of the new projects and New Taipei City another NT$26.4 billion, HouseFun said.
Property funds have migrated south in the past couple of years but seem to be returning to the north where house prices are believed to be more resistant to corrections in the event of a downturn, Ni said.
The presale project figures suggest that real-estate suppliers might be intending to opt out of the fall sales season in late September, he said.
That calculation explains why major construction companies such as Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設), High Wealth Construction Co (興富發), San Fan Property Ltd (三發地產) and Chainqui Construction Development Co (全坤建設) are all offering projects in the May 20 sales season in northern Taiwan, HouseFun said.
Final sales might be poor, given the sharp decline in prospective buyers nationwide after the Cabinet unveiled its version of the income tax plan on gains from property transactions, Ni said.
Policy uncertainty might continue to weigh on market sentiment, as the Cabinet said it plans to consult different sectors before offering the draft bill to the legislature for review, he said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to