The nation's rising real estate prices are expected to continue their upward march in the Year of the Pig on expectations of the opening up of Taiwan to Chinese tourists and continuous capital inflow, a local developer said yesterday.
"There are signs signaling that it is still a bull market in the real estate sector in the Year of the Pig," Lai Cheng-i (
Indicators include a rising mortgage loan balance exceeding NT$4.4 trillion (US$133.7 billion) at the end of last year, and a construction lending balance hitting a record high of NT$849.5 billion. This showed there was a strong demand and corresponding supply, as well as abundant capital in the market, depressing interest rates, Lai said.
Capital inflow by overseas Taiwanese companies and foreign investors in anticipation of further cross-strait liberalization -- Chinese tourists, holiday chartered flights and eventually regular direct flights -- would also bolster the property market, he added.
Chinese tourists on average have the second highest travel budgets worldwide after Japan, the statement said, citing a survey by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台經院).
The average retail spending of each Chinese tourist is estimated at US$987 per trip, or one-third of the total travel budget, the highest in the world.
The number of Chinese travelers to Hong Kong in 2004 was 12.2 million, whose consumption accounted for 12 percent of total retail sales in the territory that year and helped create 16,500 new jobs, the survey said.
"This will not only help the local tourism industry but also bolster strong demand for commercial property for the development of department stores and office buildings," Lai said.
Commercial buildings in the greater Taipei and Taichung areas will be popular targets for foreign investors this year, he predicted.
In turn, housing prices could see a 5 percent to 10 percent markup in Taipei City in the first quarter, which could further strengthen later this year, Lai said.
Similarly, Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (
Shin Kong planned to launch an upscale housing project in Taichung this year, he said.
ASML Holding NV’s new advanced chip machines have a daunting price tag, said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), one of the Dutch company’s biggest clients. “The cost is very high,” TSMC senior vice president Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, referring to ASML’s latest system known as high-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV). “I like the high-NA EUV’s capability, but I don’t like the sticker price,” Zhang said. ASML’s new chip machine can imprint semiconductors with lines that are just 8 nanometers thick — 1.7 times smaller than the previous generation. The machines cost 350 million euros (US$378 million)
EXPLOSION: A driver who was transporting waste material from the site was hit by a blunt object after an uncontrolled pressure release and thrown 6m from the truck Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday there was no damage to its facilities after an incident at its Arizona factory construction site where a waste disposal truck driver was transported to hospital. Firefighters responded to an explosion on Wednesday afternoon at the TSMC plant in Phoenix, the Arizona Republic reported, citing the local fire department. Cesar Anguiano-Guitron, 41, was transporting waste material from the project site and stopped to inspect the tank when he was made aware of a potential problem, a police report seen by Bloomberg News showed. Following an “uncontrolled pressure release,” he was hit by a blunt
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which makes servers and laptop computers on a contract basis, yesterday said it expects artificial intelligence (AI) devices to bring explosive growth to Taiwan’s electronics industry, as AI applications are starting to run on edge devices such as AI PCs. Taiwanese electronics manufacturers such as chipmakers, component suppliers and hardware assemblers are likely to benefit from a rapid uptake of AI applications, Mike Yang (楊麒令), president of Quanta Cloud Technology Inc (雲達科技), a server manufacturing arm of Quanta, told reporters on the sidelines of a technology forum in Taipei yesterday. “I believe the growth potential is promising once
RETALIATION: Beijing is investigating Taiwan, the EU, the US and Japan for dumping, following probes of its market, as well as tariff hikes on its imports The Chinese Ministry of Commerce yesterday said it had launched a dumping investigation into imports of an important engineering chemical from Taiwan, the EU, the US and Japan. It would probe imports of polyoxymethylene copolymer, a thermoplastic used in many precision parts used in phones, auto parts and medical equipment, the Chinese commerce ministry said. The ministry is reviewing materials provided by six Chinese companies that applied for assistance on behalf of the industry on April 22, it said. The probe will target polyformaldehyde copolymer imported from suppliers in the EU, the US, Taiwan and Japan last year, and will assess any damage