Full Wang International Development Co (富旺國際開發) yesterday said its profit last year soared more than 80 percent to a six-year high of NT$363 million (US$12.83 million) and it remains upbeat about business this year, supported by continued capital repatriation and a technology supply chain realignment.
The results translated into earnings of NT$2.35 per share, an 80.77 percent increase from one year earlier.
The Taichung-based company’s board proposed a cash dividend payout of NT$2 per share. With its shares closing up 5.26 percent at NT$21 yesterday, the dividend payout suggested a 9.5 percent yield.
Photo courtesy of Full Wang International Development Co
“Developers might turn low-key this year after the central bank in December [last year] tightened credit controls, but price hikes are unlikely to reverse in light of soaring construction costs,” Full Wang chairman Emerson Lin (林正雄) told a media gathering in Taipei before an investors’ conference.
Existing house prices might hold steady this year, but presale and new housing prices would climb modestly to reflect the costs of more expensive building materials and labor, Lin said.
Global technology titans, such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Microsoft Corp and Micron Technology Inc, have increased their investments in Taiwan, raising construction costs as they offer higher wages for laborers to work virtually year-round in an attempt to wrap up construction in two years, Lin said.
Raw material costs have also risen noticeably and an upcycle usually lasts for two years, he said.
Home prices in Taichung have yet to benefit from improvements to infrastructure as they did in New Taipei City and Taipei, where the introduction of mass rapid transit systems bolstered housing prices by 30 to 40 percent, Lin said.
“That suggests ample room for upward adjustments for homes in Taichung,” Lin said, adding that Taichung has recently launched mass rapid transit services.
Full Wang has NT$14 billion of presale and newly completed homes for sale this year, a considerable increase from NT$10 billion last year, finance official Chen Yung-he (陳永和) said.
Small apartments featuring two bedrooms account for 70 percent of the products, as they are relatively affordable with price tags of below NT$10 million, Chen said.
Housing prices in central Taichung hover around NT$400,000 per ping (3.3m2), but are half as much in less competitive locations, he said.
Full Wang is looking at a 15 percent decline in presale projects this year, from a record NT$1.6 trillion last year, as developers are likely to refrain from aggressive marketing strategies to appease regulators, Lin said.
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