While the nation’s housing market is stalling, storefront prices in Taipei City’s prime locations has continued to break records, as evidenced by a recent deal for a tiny retail space on Zhongxiao E Road, a real-estate broker said.
The storefront, measuring 18.45 ping (60.89m2) and currently housing a boutique selling Pierre Cardin products, was sold last month for NT$195 million (US$6.5 million), or a record NT$10.57 million per ping, overtaking the previous record of NT$9.64 million per ping set by a storefront in Ximending (西門町), downtown Taipei.
“Storefronts in the [Zhong-xiao E Road] area have become increasingly popular, thanks to the opening of international fashion retailers Uniqlo and Zara last year,” Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) head researcher Jhally Chiu said by telephone yesterday.
The transaction showed demand for commercial property, especially storefronts, remains solid, if not stronger, Chiu said.
The trend is diminishing rental yields that hover between 1.4 percent and 2 percent, for storefronts on Section 4 of Zhonxiao E Road, he added. Chiu declined to name the sellers or buyers except to say that both are in real estate.
The seller acquired the storefront in January 2009, and thus avoided the special sales levy, which subjects real estate to taxes of between 10 percent and 15 percent of the trading price if resold within two years of purchase, Chiu said.
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