The nation’s commercial property market is likely to rebound this quarter after recording an annual slump of more than 70 percent in transaction value last quarter, if several landmark buildings in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) can secure buyers, analysts said yesterday.
The auction of the Shinkong Manhattan World Trade Building is to take place on Friday and the adjacent A8 building, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store (新光三越百貨), is to be auctioned on Oct. 20. Both properties are owned by Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽).
CTBC Bank (中信銀行), the main subsidiary of CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), is selling its former headquarters building in the same district, after lowering the floor price by NT$5 billion (US$152.2 million) to NT$15.2 billion.
“We are cautiously optimistic about the auction results,” said Tony Chao (趙正義), managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle Taiwan (仲量聯行), the bidding organizer of the Shin Kong Life buildings.
Local and foreign life insurers and property investors have voiced interest in the Shin Kong properties, Chao said by telephone, adding that it is too early to tell if any party would tender offers.
Domestic life insurers, the main players in the local commercial market, might not buy real estate that generates returns of less than 2.805 percent, despite having ample funds for property investment, Chao said.
Both the Manhattan and the A8 building might fail to attract investors with an asking prices of NT$28 billion and NT$9 billion respectively, despite good rental incomes.
The minimum yield requirement does not apply to buildings intended for self-occupancy, making the Manhattan building more flexible for buyers, while the A8 is devoted to retail space, Chao said.
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the flagship unit of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), has made its intentions to make property investments in Taipei known in a recent stock filing, without elaborating further.
DTZ Debenham Tie Leung (戴德梁行), general manager Billy Yen (顏炳立) said it would be a shame if the Shin Kong buildings fail to find a buyer given their top-tier location and guarantee of rental incomes.
Rental yields average between 2.2 percent and 2.3 percent for office buildings in Taipei’s central business district, different studies showed.
“The commercial market would not be able to emerge from the doldrums in the foreseeable future if property sellers refuse to lower prices and authorities refuse to ease the yield requirement,” Yen said by telephone.
Commercial property transactions totaled NT$9.77 billion during the July to September period, plunging 75.7 percent from the same period last year, DTZ data showed.
For the first nine months of the year, the commercial market reported NT$28.94 billion worth of deals, representing a 59.35 percent decline from a year earlier, according to DTZ.
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
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