Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) yesterday won the superficies rights to a plot of land in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) for NT$15.98 billion (US$523.93 million), a premium of 60 percent on the asking price.
The life insurer won the auction for a 50-year lease to redevelop the 2,147 ping (7,085m2) plot where the Xinyi District Household Registration Office stands, outbidding developers Yuan Lih Group (元利建設) and How Yu Construction Co (豪昱營造).
The office building next to Taipei 101 is qualified for urban renewal, with a preferential floor space ratio of 560 percent of the plot.
The auction result means the Taipei City Government could collect NT$118 million a year in rental income from the plot.
Sinyi Global Management Co (全球資產管理), a property management unit of Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), said the premium reflected the popularity and rarity of superficies rights for plots in the district, where demand for grade-A office space is gaining momentum, but there is no new supply on the horizon.
Vacancy rates in the area have fallen below 3 percent, while monthly rents have climbed to NT$4,500 per ping for new office space, Sinyi Global said.
The rosy outlook explains why Nan Shan Life made a generous offer after occupancy at its affiliated Taipei Nan Shan Plaza next to Taipei 101 reached 80 percent in the first year of operation, Sinyi Global said.
Rents will likely rise above NT$5,000 per ping upon the completion of the new commercial complex, the property broker said.
Potential contenders are turning their attention to an adjacent lot on the site of the Taipei World Trade Center’s Exhibition Hall 3 that is slated for a superficies rights auction in the second half of next year.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce