Commercial property transactions last quarter totaled NT$12.9 billion (US$425.63 million), declining 60 percent from the same period last year, as buyers turned conservative amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest data released by property brokers showed.
Industrial properties accounted for 80 percent of transactions, followed by offices at NT$1.34 billion, Colliers International Taiwan (高力國際) said in a quarterly survey yesterday.
However, Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan (戴德梁行) data showed that overall deals totaled NT$9.51 billion, representing a 61 percent retreat.
“The market might see a panic sell-off if the outbreak persists beyond this quarter,” Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan general manager Billy Yen (顏炳立) told an online news briefing last week.
Yen compared the COVID-19 pandemic to a black swan that has not only sickened people worldwide, but also snapped an expected recovery for the local property market.
Sellers are struggling to stay afloat, while buyers are waiting for price corrections, Yen said, adding that both sides prefer to stay on the sidelines to see how the global health crisis pans out.
Pent-up demand could evolve into a protracted recession if the disease drives up business closures and pushes a large number of people out of work, he said.
Colliers Taiwan said the outbreak has prompted companies in the region to slow expansion plans, with the effects most evident at retail stores, hotels and restaurants.
Travel restrictions and “social distancing” recommendations make operating those establishments difficult, Colliers said.
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport last month saw an average of between 2,000 and 3,000 passengers per day, a 90 percent decline from a year earlier, government data showed.
In February, restaurant sales shrank 30 percent year-on-year, while revenues at department stores tumbled 36 percent, defying cutthroat discounts to attract customers, Colliers said.
Land deals appeared unaffected by the virus, given record first-quarter volume of NT$84.2 billion.
The superficies right to regenerate the former site of the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 3 in the prime Xinyi District (信義) made a substantial contribution of NT$31.28 billion.
Sharp competition for the lot from domestic life insurance companies reflected keen interest in regular rental income from properties in central business districts, Colliers said.
It would take several years for Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽), which bought the rights, to develop the complex, which is next to Taipei 101.
A positive long-term profitability outlook also accounted for active land trading in Taipei’s second-tier Beitou (北投) and Nangang (南港) districts, as well as in Taichung, Colliers Taiwan said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS