The vacancy rate for grade-A offices in the April-to-June quarter dropped slightly from the previous quarter, while rental rates picked up mildly with firms planning to hire new staff and improve operations, encouraged by stable economic recoveries at home and abroad, Jones Lang LaSalle Taiwan (JLL, 仲量聯行) said in a report yesterday.
The vacancy rate for top-grade office space dropped 1.5 percentage points to 7.7 percent last quarter while rental rates increased 0.4 percent, the international property consultancy said.
“Taiwan’s leasing market has benefited from a global economic recovery that has encouraged firms to increase office space and hire employees,” JLL said in the report.
The total take-up amounted to 4,445 ping (14,694.24m2) last quarter, with a concentration in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) on the back of leasing demand from companies in financial, technology and retail sectors, the report said.
Those companies showed a preference for small and medium-sized office space, lowering the vacancy rate in the district to 6.8 percent and raising its monthly rental rates by 2.9 percent to NT$3,039 per ping from a year earlier, the report said.
Taipei’s Dunhua area, had a vacancy rate of 8.1 percent in the second quarter, down 0.4 of a percentage point from the previous quarter, driven by demand from domestic retailers and Chinese e-commerce providers, the report said.
Rental rates climbed a tiny 0.2 percent from the preceding quarter.
JLL expects the market to put up a better performance, as nearly 50 percent of Taiwanese, firms particularly life insurers, property brokers and retailers, have announced plans to enlarge the number of their staff, the report said.
Companies have made inquiries about vacant office space in central business districts, the report said, adding that some landlords are trying to attract tenants by offering rent-free periods of up to two weeks.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last