Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋), the nation’s largest real-estate broker by number of offices, last week said that revenue in the first half of this year grew 20 percent and it added 70 new outlets during the period, even though the COVID-19 pandemic kept most people at home from February to early May.
The revenue gain bucked a 2 percent decline in housing deals nationwide during the same period, according to government data.
The group operates under three brands: Yung Ching Realty Co (永慶), U-Trust Realty Co (有巢氏) and Taiching Realty Co (台慶房屋).
Evertrust chairman Sun Ching-yu (孫慶餘) attributed the strong performance to the company’s policy to disclose real-price transaction data for all products on hand, including their exact addresses, which allows people to better guide to their decisionmaking process.
The government’s real-price transaction platform limits such disclosures to the neighborhood of the houses sold, leaving room for ambiguity.
“The transparency policy, adopted last year, has helped all three brands to win the trust of customers and increase market share,” Sun said in a news release.
Related details are available free of charge at the company’s more than 1,100 offices, he said.
Liu Pin-yao (劉炳耀), president of the group’s franchise department, said the joint sales strategy also lent support to business growth.
Revenue and transactions made through joint sales both increased by 30 percent, Liu said.
Full data disclosure and joint sales have become the foundation upon which Evertrust and franchises conduct their business, Liu said, adding that the strategy has proven successful in light of business gains.
The number of outlets rose by 70 to more than 1,100 across Taiwan, roughly in line with the group’s plan to open 150 outlets this year, Evertrust communications officials said by telephone.
Chuang Chih-cheng (莊志誠), general manager at the franchise department, said that several outlets posted revenues of NT$40 million to NT$60 million (US$1.35 million to US$2.03 million) in the first half, adding that it was a remarkable achievement amid the virus outbreak.
Chuang said joint sales would continue to drive transactions, as the era of doing business single-handedly is over.
All three brands should continue to pool resources and benefit from business growth, he said.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS