Property developers plan to launch NT$164.8 billion (US$5.41 billion) of new construction projects in the forthcoming spring sales season, down 22.6 percent from last year, as some are more confident about a recovery, but many continue to digest inventory.
While the figure represents the smallest volume in six years, a few major developers rejoined the market with luxury housing projects after policymakers lent measured support to the sector, the Chinese-language Housing Monthly said in its annual report.
“The spring sales season, which starts on March 29 and lasts through next month, might herald luxury housing projects whose launch has been put on hold for the past few years amid bearish sentiment,” Housing Monthly research manager Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said by telephone.
Taipei-based Huaku Development Co (華固建設) is rolling out an expensive urban renewal project on the capital’s Dunhua N Road with asking prices of NT$2.1 million per ping (3.3m2), the highest in the vicinity, Ho said, adding that the project could bring in NT$8 billion in sales.
Ruentex Development Co (潤泰新) is to introduce a large upscale residential project near the Breeze Center (微風廣場) on Fuxing S Road in Taipei that could generate NT$15 billion in revenue, suggesting price tags of between NT$2.2 million and NT$2.5 million per ping, a new high in the neighborhood, Ho said.
High land acquisition costs make luxury housing a necessary investment choice, as it has a better profit margin, Ho said.
Cathay Real Estate Development Co (國泰建設), an affiliate of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), is planning a residential project with 32 units in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山) that could yield NT$1.4 billion in sales, the firm said.
New construction projects in the capital are to total NT$43.1 billion, about half as much as those in New Taipei City at NT$84.3 billion, the report said.
Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) is planning NT$7.5 billion of presale apartment buildings in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊) and Shin Ruen Development Co (新潤興業) is to unveil a new apartment project valued at NT$5 billion in Banciao District (板橋), it said.
Farglory, which posted record revenue of NT$27.72 billion last year, aims to achieve a stronger performance this year at the pace of NT$100 million per day, the company has said.
The Taipei-based developer is building a mixed-use tower in Kaohsiung that is to have 58 stories above ground, making it the second-tallest building in the municipality after 85 Sky Tower.
Farglory is to use the first to 16th floors as a five-star hotel and turn the higher floors into luxury apartments priced between NT$470,000 and NT$590,000 per ping.
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
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