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Property investment delicate: DPP

By Jimmy Chuang
STAFF REPORTER, WITH AP, TAOYUAN
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008, Page 3

A Taoyuan County Government official points to charts outlining property for sale on an old military base to visiting Chinese property tycoons yesterday in Taoyuan. The group is the first to tour the nation since Ma Ying-jeou was elected president on March 22. PHOTO : AP

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators said yesterday that letting Chinese investors manipulate the nation’s real estate market would raise prices and that more and more people, especially from the younger generation, would not be able to afford homes.

The remarks came as a group of Chinese property tycoons continued their tour of the nation yesterday.

DPP caucus deputy whip Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) said during a press conference yesterday morning that Chinese investors needed approval from Beijing before they could spend their money abroad.

Even if their investments are approved, Pan said, it would not necessarily be a good thing for the public because the potentially large number of Chinese investors could manipulate the real estate sector and cause a surge in prices.

“The only happy people will be the owners of Taiwanese construction businesses,” Pan said. “They will have lots of chances to make more money. But for the rest of us, it will become more and more difficult to afford an apartment home.”

DPP Legislator Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) cited Hong Kong as an example of what could happen if the government does not carefully regulate Chinese investment in real estate. He said Chinese investors had poured a lot of money into Hong Kong real estate, causing prices to soar over the past decade. The ballooning prices have made it an impossible dream for young adults to buy homes, he said.

“The most important issue concerning us is that we want to avoid a situation in which rich people become richer and richer and poor people become more and more desperate,” DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) said.

Pan said the DPP was not opposed to the idea of letting in Chinese investment to bolster the economy, but the party is against the sudden lifting of restrictions without first putting necessary mechanisms in place to protect the public’s interests.

The group of potential property developers was the first group of investors to visit since the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won the presidential election on March 22.

The group includes a number of self-made billionaires who have cashed in on China’s breakneck economic growth.

The group said it is interested in learning about leisure and tourism investment opportunities in anticipation of the opening of Taiwan to Chinese tourists.

“This is an exploration trip,” said Liu Changle (劉長樂), a developer and chairman of Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television. “Taiwan has an important property market in the Greater China and Asian region.”

Sites on the group’s itinerary included a NT$46 billion (US$1.5 billion) commercial-leisure complex in Taichung and a NT$10 billion yachting-theme park complex near a bay in Pingtung.

Pan Shiyi (潘石屹) of Soho China, also in the group, said the prospect of thousands of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan made Taiwanese hotels and leisure-related investments highly attractive.

“We have 1.3 billion Chinese,” he said. “If they can get here by direct flights ... I think there will be a lot of interest in that.”
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