Commercial property transactions totaled NT$67.64 billion (US$2.32 billion) in the July-to-September quarter, more than doubling from the previous quarter and a year earlier, driven by self-occupancy and investment demand from local technology and insurance companies, Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan (戴德梁行) said yesterday.
Local capital drove all of the deals, of which 72 percent were concentrated in Taipei, Taoyuan and Tainan, Cushman & Wakefield said.
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), the main subsidiary of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), acquired Sunworld Dynasty Hotel Taipei (王朝大酒店) near the Taipei Arena MRT Station for NT$25.52 billion, the property consultancy said.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
The transaction came with an agreement from the property’s US owner, Sunrider International, to lease the complex to keep the hotel going and generate rent income for Fubon Life.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, bought three factories in Tainan for NT$9.35 billion to meet capacity expansion needs, Cushman & Wakefield said.
Adding another purchase of NT$660 million last quarter, TSMC poured more than NT$10 billion into the commercial property market, becoming a major contributor, it said.
Sales of partial floors at an office building in Taipei’s prime Xinyi District (信義) above the Taipei City Hall MRT Station surprised the market with a record price of nearly NT$1.8 million per ping (3.3m2), Cushman & Wakefield said.
Chiayi-based Ying Chan Development Co (營展開發) bought the entire 16th floor for NT$1.24 billion and affiliated Ying Fu Development Co (盈福開發) purchased part of the 29th floor for NT$650 million one month apart, it said.
The transactions showed that prices for grade-A office space in the district are approaching that for luxury residential apartments, the most expensive property products in Taiwan, due to strong demand and scarce supply, Cushman & Wakefield said.
The housing market also recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic judging by transaction volumes and prices, Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan general manager Billy Yen (顏炳立) said.
Yen attributed the fast recovery to accommodative monetary policy in Taiwan and around the world.
Presale projects proved the most popular, as they were priced at roughly the same levels as existing homes, Yen said, calling the phenomenon unreasonable.
Existing homes should be sold at discount rates relative to presale and new housing projects, he said.
Yen hesitated to bet on a sustained recovery that is modest in scale for the time being.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six