The vacancy rate for grade-A offices in Taiwan climbed to 8.7 percent during the third quarter — 0.8 percentage points higher than the previous three months — due mainly to additional vacancies in three buildings comprising Taiwan Cooperative Financial Holding Co’s (合庫金控) new headquarters on Taipei’s Bade Road, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Inc associate market director Brian Liu (劉建宇) said yesterday.
The new buildings have 32,639 ping (107,708m2) of floor space with 83 percent intended for self-occupancy and the remaining space to be leased, Liu said.
The take-up rate totaled 24,304 ping last quarter, while monthly rent averaged NT$2,643 (US$87.48) per ping, virtually the same as the preceding quarter, the international property broker said in a report.
Liu expects the vacancy rate to pick up this quarter as new skyscrapers, such as the Taipei Nan Shen Plaza (臺北南山廣場) in the prime Xinyi District (信義), are due to join the market, raising supply by more than 3,000 ping.
Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) has secured tenants for 40 percent of the upcoming plaza, a joint development venture with Taipei City Government, which owns the land.
The leasing market held firm, compared with commercial property investments, which have floundered amid falling price expectations, JLL Taiwan managing director Tony Chao (趙正義) said.
Commercial property transactions totaled NT$19.5 billion last quarter, with holdings by domestic life insurers falling into negative territory, Chao said.
The decline came even though property funds amounted to more than NT$4.8 trillion among the nation’s top 10 insurers, Chao said.
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