Vacancy rates for grade A offices in Taipei held steady at 2.05 percent last quarter with virtually flat rents, as Taiwan’s quick control of its COVID-19 outbreak allowed the local leasing market to emerge unscathed.
The resilient showing came even though the global leasing market reported a 59 percent slump, with the pace of retreat 65 percent in the US and 61 percent in Asia, Jones Lang LaSalle Inc data showed.
“Taiwan put up a remarkable performance, thanks to its efficient virus control,” Jones Lang LaSalle Taiwan senior market director Brian Liu (劉建宇) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The vacancy rate was a 30-year low, while rents climbed to a 19-year high, Liu said.
He forecast a sustained rent increase toward a record, likely next year, of NT$3,000 per ping (3.3m2), as there is no sign of a lot of new supply.
Taipei-based China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) has made clear it would not release new space at its new office building when construction is completed in 2022, Liu said.
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) has inked a deal to lease 6,000 ping of office space at its forthcoming building on Liaoning Street in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to Standard Chartered Bank and would retain the other 7,000 ping for its own use.
Transglobe Life Insurance Co (全球人壽) has agreed to lease 4,600 ping of new office space, according to a Jones Lang LaSalle tally.
That suggests no new office supply between now and the end of 2022 in Taipei’s central business districts, Liu said.
Taiwan’s economy has received a boost from global demand for remote working and learning devices amid the pandemic, and renewed US-China tensions, Jones Lang LaSalle Taiwan managing director Tony Chao (趙正義) said.
Both factors are driving global technology giants to restructure supply chains, bringing order transfers to local firms, Chao said.
The government lent support by introducing stimulus measures to make Taiwan an attractive investment destination and the strategy paid off, he said.
Chao said his prediction last year about a boom this year has been realized, judging by record commercial property transactions and active land deals last quarter.
Growth momentum is to sustain this quarter, despite lingering uncertainty, as Taiwan has outperformed the world in terms of economic recovery, Jones Lang LaSalle said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS