Despite the government’s continued efforts to contain soaring housing prices, an apartment in the upscale The Palace (帝寶) complex in Taipei City yesterday sold for NT$282 million (US$9.14 million), or about NT$2.06 million per ping, a record high in the nation’s history of residential property auctions.
The closing price represented a premium of 19.6 percent on the asking price of NT$236 million for the property, which has a total floor space of 164.86 ping (544m2), including four parking spots occupying an area of 31.36 ping, the price of which were calculated separately.
“Such a high bidding price means that demand for luxury properties in Taiwan remains strong,” Bright Lee (李建興), manager at Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), said in a statement, adding that a warmer relationship across the Taiwan Strait has helped consolidate the confidence of property investors.
PHOTO: HSU I-PING, TAIPEI TIMES
This was the first time that an apartment at the landmark 5,000 ping residential complex The Palace has been auctioned off. The luxury complex, located near the intersection of Renai Road and -Jianguo S Road, is composed of six residential buildings, plus a “six-star” recreational club that includes its own ballroom.
Yesterday’s auction, which drew two tenders, was organized by the Taiwan Financial Asset Service Corp (台灣金融資產服務公司).
The winning bidder was a 35-year-old resident of the The Palace named Yu Chang-che (俞昌哲), the son of Liu Yue-chai (劉月釵), a well-known property investor in uptown Taipei, known as the city’s East District (東區).
To contain the rising property prices in the Greater Taipei area, the central bank earlier this year began demanding that local lenders tighten their mortgage lending practices, while the Ministry of Finance has suspended public land sales to discourage speculative investment.
Despite a cooling period in the market following those measures, the prices of luxury residential units in Taipei have risen since last month, Li said, adding that the turnover volume of luxury properties worth more than NT$60 million climbed 34 percent from a month earlier, with the price going back up to NT$986,000 per ping.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) said in a separate statement that the bidding price of NT$2.06 million per ping would boost the prices of other luxury properties in Taipei City, such as the five-star Agora Garden (亞太會館).
“Although the apartment [on the fifth floor] is next to the Jianguo Overpass, only the windows of the dining room and the master -bedroom are facing the bridge,” the realtor said in the statement.
Chiu Tai-hsuan, an analyst of Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋不動產), yesterday predicted that apartment prices at the The Palace are likely to rise to between NT$2.2 million and NT$2.5 million per ping in the first quarter of next year.
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