Vacancy rates for grade A offices in Taipei fell to 2.9 percent last quarter, little changed from 3 percent three months earlier, as demand for upscale office space remains strong, but a lack of new supply limited activity, international property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (JLL) said yesterday.
Tight supply in the third quarter saw a take-up rate of just 358 ping (1,183m2), compared with 15,000 ping in the second quarter and a year earlier, JLL senior market director Brian Liu (劉建宇) said at a news conference.
An almost full occupancy rate saw the average monthly rent edge up 0.3 percent to NT$2,776 (US$90) per ping, with the figure at NT$3,361 per ping in Xinyi District (信義) and even higher for new office space, Liu said.
“Relocation and the headquarters needs of the financial, technology and Internet sectors underpinned the leasing market, while the rapid growth of coworking also helped,” JLL Taiwan managing director Tony Chao (趙正義) said.
Coworking is where workers from different companies share an office space, facilitating cost-saving and convenience through the use of common equipment, utilities and custodial services.
Coworking is accounting for 20 percent of take-up rates in Hong Kong, Chao said, adding that JLL has a need for more coworking space, but is unable to find suitable sites.
Ageing office buildings in Taipei are adding to the difficulty as by 2024 about 30 percent would be older than 20 years, he said.
In other international cities, JLL removes the grade-A label from office buildings that are older than 20 years.
Old office buildings do not have the infrastructure or flexibility to meet modern business needs, Chao said.
The lack of new supply would lend unpredictability to the leasing market next year, JLL said.
“Landlords might be tempted to raise rents and challenge the tolerance of tenants, with the economy stalling due to the US-China trade dispute,” Chao said.
Companies might have no choice but to relocate to Nangang (南港) and Neihu (內湖) districts, where 170,000 ping of new office space is to enter the leasing market over the next few years.
Commercial property transactions rose to a 10-year high of NT$64.1 billion last quarter, if the Mandarin Oriental Taipei (文華東方酒店) deal proves to be true, JLL said.
Reports last month said that Kai Tai Fung International Co (開泰豐國際), owner of the luxury facility, had signed an agreement with a Canadian billionaire to sell the property for NT$38.5 billion.
“The local property market might experience a stronger recovery next year as investors at home and abroad are interested in raising their real-estate stakes,” Chao said, adding that the ongoing unrest in Hong Kong makes Taiwan more attractive.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained