A property analyst advised caution yesterday amid growing media speculation over potential investments in the local real estate market by a group of visiting Chinese tycoons.
Despite the media’s attempts to paint a rosy picture of prospective Chinese investments, Kristy Huang (黃郁琪), director of CB Richard Ellis Taiwan’s (CBRE) institutional investment properties division, said that Chinese capital has yet to be injected into Taiwan.
“[Chinese investors] may have problem securing enough loans from local banks to fund their investment projects here unless they have enough capital of their own,” Huang told an American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) gathering.
The main source of capital inflow that could give the local property market a boost will still come from European and US investors, who have invested early on in Taiwan, or from Hong Kong and Malaysia, she said.
“It all depends on whether [Chinese investors] can offer valuable collateral to secure enough bank loans given the tight credit environment,” Huang said. “Chinese capital won’t be the mainstream source of potential capital injection for the time being.”
For example, the chances of Chinese investors winning in the upcoming auction of Agora Garden (亞太會館) hotel in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), with a floor price set at NT$14.9 billion (US$492 million), is slim, she said.
The members of the visiting Chinese property tycoon delegation, who visited Pingtung County’s Dapeng Bay National Scenic Area yesterday, had expressed their interest in acquiring the hotel or taking part in the operation of the Chiang Kai-shek mausoleum area (兩蔣文化園區) in Taoyuan and the Shuinan Trade Zone (水湳經貿園區) in Taichung, local media reported.
While CBRE advised caution, a local property developer was optimistic that Chinese investments would lift the local market.
“Their capital injection will boost local property prices and indirectly benefit local developers,” Mu Chun-sung (穆椿松), chairman of the Taiwan Construction Development Federation (台灣省建築開發公會), said by telephone yesterday.
Mu was also confident that Chinese investors would be able to secure the necessary bank loans.
“If necessary, they can go through multinational banks, not local banks, such as Citigroup [through a third country] to take out loans,” he said. “It won’t be a problem for [Chinese investors] to funnel funds [into Taiwan].”
Mu also dismissed concerns that Chinese investment would raise overall property prices, putting them out of reach of local home buyers.
He said that Chinese capital was likely to flow into and raise the prices of luxury homes or big property development projects, which will have a limited impact on the average prices of properties designed for the low to mid-income households.
TAKING STOCK: A Taiwanese cookware firm in Vietnam urged customers to assess inventory or place orders early so shipments can reach the US while tariffs are paused Taiwanese businesses in Vietnam are exploring alternatives after the White House imposed a 46 percent import duty on Vietnamese goods, following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on the US’ trading partners. Lo Shih-liang (羅世良), chairman of Brico Industry Co (裕茂工業), a Taiwanese company that manufactures cast iron cookware and stove components in Vietnam, said that more than 40 percent of his business was tied to the US market, describing the constant US policy shifts as an emotional roller coaster. “I work during the day and stay up all night watching the news. I’ve been following US news until 3am
Six years ago, LVMH’s billionaire CEO Bernard Arnault and US President Donald Trump cut the blue ribbon on a factory in rural Texas that would make designer handbags for Louis Vuitton, one of the world’s best-known luxury brands. However, since the high-profile opening, the factory has faced a host of problems limiting production, 11 former Louis Vuitton employees said. The site has consistently ranked among the worst-performing for Louis Vuitton globally, “significantly” underperforming other facilities, said three former Louis Vuitton workers and a senior industry source, who cited internal rankings shared with staff. The plant’s problems — which have not
TARIFF CONCERNS: The chipmaker cited global uncertainty from US tariffs and a weakening economic outlook, but said its Singapore expansion remains on track Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進), a foundry service provider specializing in producing power management and display driver chips, yesterday withdrew its full-year revenue projection of moderate growth for this year, as escalating US tariff tensions raised uncertainty and concern about a potential economic recession. The Hsinchu-based chipmaker in February said revenues this year would grow mildly from last year based on improving supply chain inventory levels and market demand. At the time, it also anticipated gradual quarter revenue growth. However, the US’ sweeping tariff policy has upended the industry’s supply chains and weakened economic prospects for the world economy, it said. “Now
UNCERTAINTY: Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies’ effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO’s revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company’s overall revenue. To cope with the tariff uncertainty, AUO plans to allocate its production to manufacturing facilities in
RSS