Highwealth Construction Corp (興富發), a major property developer, yesterday said it is to shore up efforts to digest home inventory this year, with related sales expected to exceed NT$3 billion (US$99.25 million).
“We plan to cut prices for new homes by 10 percent to 15 percent lower than the market rates listed on the government’s Web site to motivate buyers,” Highwealth chairman Cheng Chih-lung (鄭志隆) told a shareholders’ meeting.
The announcement makes Highwealth the first developer to slash asking prices for newly completed homes after home inventory levels reached NT$19.3 billion nationwide.
The developer is also offering free furniture and decorations, Cheng said, adding that the firm wants to see sales go past the NT$3 billion mark.
While property transactions have shown signs of improvement this year, they remain light compared with levels prior to the introduction of tightening measures, Cheng said.
The market is likely to have hit the bottom, but will likely take some time to recover, especially the luxury home segment, Cheng said.
Highwealth is still planning on launching NT$25 billion worth of presale projects in different parts of the nation in the second half of this year to avoid overconcentration in any areas, he said.
There are to be presale projects in New Taipei City’s Sijhih (汐止) and Sinjhuang (新莊) districts, Taoyuan, Taichung and Tainan as well as Hsinchu and Kaohsiung counties, Cheng said.
Highwealth is in talks to find hospitality and retail partners for a construction project in Kaohsiung, he said.
The company posted net income of NT$344 million for the first quarter of the year, which translated into earnings per share of NT$0.3.
However, that was a plunge of 78.84 percent from the net income posted for the same period last year, company data showed.
Shareholders yesterday approved plans to distribute NT$5 per share in cash dividend from earnings of NT$6.35 billion last year as well as capital reserve.
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