Office rents this year might grow 3 percent annually after a 2.9 percent pickup last year, as demand from the technology and financial sectors remains strong, Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (JLL) said yesterday.
Average monthly rents rose to NT$2,728 (US$88.47) per ping (3.3m2) for grade-A office space in Taipei in the fourth quarter, a 2.9 percent increase from a year earlier, while vacancy rates dropped to 5.5 percent, the international property consultancy said.
Take-up rates totaled 20,086 ping during the October-to-December quarter, with new buildings almost fully occupied shortly after entering the market, as financial, technology and professional consultancy firms and e-commerce operators looked for better working environments, and relocated to central business districts, JLL associate market director Brian Liu (劉建宇) said.
JLL expects vacancy rates to taper to 4 percent this year, while room rates are to reach NT$2,800 per ping, with little new supply, Liu said.
“Several clients have expressed interest in upscale offices in Taipei, which might only see 4,000 ping added this year,” Liu said, referring to a new mixed-use complex by Huang Hsiang Construction Co (皇翔建設) in Zhongshan District (中山).
The estimate could be overly optimistic, as the developer might turn a higher portion of the complex into more profitable residential units, JLL Taiwan managing director Tony Chao (趙正義) said.
For the whole of last year, take-up rates swelled to a record high of 61,646 ping, pushing up rents in the city’s prime Xinyi District (信義) by 4.5 percent, JLL’s report showed.
The Taipei Dome project could add 10,000 ping of office space if the city government and Farglory Group (遠雄集團) can settle safety concerns, JLL said.
The leasing market seems unaffected by an economic slowdown caused by a trade dispute between the US and China, Chao said, adding that monthly office rents would surpass NT$3,000 per ping in three years.
JLL, which last year helped organize the bidding for the Taipei Twin Towers development project near Taipei Railway Station, is this year looking for developers to renovate the century-old Chienkuo Beer Brewery (建國啤酒廠) and Taiwan Power Co’s (台電) idle plots in Nangang District (南港), Chao said.
Growth potential for the property market is strong in light of ample liquidity and low borrowing costs if buyers and sellers can settle their pricing differences, he said.
Local insurers have up to NT$5.6 trillion in funding for property investments, but have had difficulty finding ideal targets, Chao added.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
RSS