Taiwan started off this year with the fastest increase in commercial property sales, which soared 60 percent from a year earlier to US$1.3 billion last quarter, a report by Real Capital Analytics (RCA) found on Monday.
Taiwan is one of a handful of markets worldwide that have kept a lid on the COVID-19 pandemic and avoided a second wave, allowing its commercial real-estate market to power on, driven almost entirely by local companies expanding capacity alongside a strong economy, it said, adding that all signs point to yet another vibrant year for property investment.
Taiwan’s GDP growth last quarter hit 8.16 percent and might continue to expand on the back of strong demand for electronics and non-tech products, official data showed.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
However, investment activity across major income-producing property types in the Asia-Pacific region slipped 12 percent year-on-year to US$29.6 billion, with only five of major commercial markets seeing higher deal volumes, it said.
China overtook Japan as the most active commercial property market by trading value, which reached US$8 billion, representing a 4 percent increase from the same period last year, it said.
Momentum in Taiwan and Hong Kong is building up in light of large double-digit percentage gains, it said, adding that activity in Singapore jumped by 200 percent due to a low base last year, it said.
Japan was a drag on overall investment in the region, with trading value shrinking to US$6.9 billion, it said.
While Japan fared the weakest, its result masks the resilient performance of Tokyo, which saw a robust cross-border investment appetite, it said.
Dealmaking in South Korea also trended down, even though the market posted record levels of activity last year, it said.
The hotel sector remained the weakest, with trading volume plunging more than 50 percent over the past 12 months as the number of deals dried up, it said.
About US$1.5 billion in hotel deals have fallen through since the beginning of last year, RCA data showed.
In particular, deals in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia have almost all evaporated.
The comeback in retail investment activity continued, with sales rising to US$5.7 billion, or a 2 percent increase from a year earlier, it said.
The retail recovery corresponded with price falls across major markets, driven by retailers rationalizing their occupancy strategies throughout the past 12 months.
Furthermore, some Asia-Pacific markets have been able to return to normalcy, allowing trading operations to revive and draw attention from investors, it said.
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
‘REMARKABLE SHOWING’: The economy likely grew 5 percent in the first half of the year, although it would likely taper off significantly, TIER economist Gordon Sun said The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) yesterday raised Taiwan’s GDP growth forecast for this year to 3.02 percent, citing robust export-driven expansion in the first half that is likely to give way to a notable slowdown later in the year as the front-loading of global shipments fades. The revised projection marks an upward adjustment of 0.11 percentage points from April’s estimate, driven by a surge in exports and corporate inventory buildup ahead of possible US tariff hikes, TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy likely grew more than 5 percent in the first six months
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market value closed above US$1 trillion for the first time in Taipei last week, with a raised sales forecast driven by robust artificial intelligence (AI) demand. TSMC saw its Taiwanese shares climb to a record high on Friday, a near 50 percent rise from an April low. That has made it the first Asian stock worth more than US$1 trillion, since PetroChina Co (中國石油天然氣) briefly reached the milestone in 2007. As investors turned calm after their aggressive buying on Friday, amid optimism over the chipmaker’s business outlook, TSMC lost 0.43 percent to close at NT$1,150
SMART MANUFACTURING: The company aims to have its production close to the market end, but attracting investment is still a challenge, the firm’s president said Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said its long-term global production plan would stay unchanged amid geopolitical and tariff policy uncertainties, citing its diversified global deployment. With operations in Taiwan, Thailand, China, India, Europe and the US, Delta follows a “produce at the market end” strategy and bases its production on customer demand, with major site plans unchanged, Delta president Simon Chang (張訓海) said on the sidelines of a company event yesterday. Thailand would remain Delta’s second headquarters, as stated in its first-quarter earnings conference, with its plant there adopting a full smart manufacturing system, Chang said. Thailand is the firm’s second-largest overseas