Industrial property transactions totaled NT$49.46 billion (US$1.61 billion) in the first nine months of this year, a 58 percent increase over the same period last year, driven by demand from local tech firms and developers, international property consultancy CBRE Taiwan said yesterday.
Taiwanese manufacturers, especially in the electronics sector, have bought properties to meet expansion needs or build headquarters, CBRE Taiwan said.
Some deals apparently had to do with firms moving production out of China to circumvent punitive tariffs imposed by Washington on Chinese goods, it said.
That is why industrial offices and factory sales (excluding land) rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$31.96 billion in the first nine months, it said.
Self-occupancy needs underpinned NT$26.13 billion of the deals, or 81.76 percent of the total trading, indicating that manufacturers prefer to buy existing factories, CBRE Taiwan said.
Industrial land transfers grew nearly 60 percent year-on-year to NT$17.5 billion, it said.
Local developers accounted for 62 percent of the transfer, or NT$10.9 billion, the highest in a decade, as they are seeking to take advantage of Taiwanese companies returning home amid the US-China trade dispute, the company said.
Most the deals were in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, which together accounted for up to 80 percent of the transactions, it said.
As a result, prices for industrial land nationwide increased 4.6 percent in the first half of this year, translating into NT$128,752 per ping (3.3m2), it said.
Central Taiwan saw the biggest growth in prices, 5.2 percent, followed by 4.7 percent for northern Taiwan, while prices rose 3.4 percent in southern Taiwan and 1 percent in eastern Taiwan, it said.
Low interest rates might continue to lend support to industrial properties and price hike expectations have led to some owners deciding to hold onto their properties, CBRE Taiwan said.
That trend is likely to slow future transactions in popular locations, it said.
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