Commercial property deals last quarter tumbled 40.4 percent from a quarter earlier to NT$27.63 billion (US$989.79 million), weighed by a domestic COVID-19 outbreak, but could stage a comeback once the crisis is over, Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan (戴德梁行) said.
Local capital accounted for all transactions during the April-to-June period, with self-occupancy demand accounting for 75 percent of the deals, the broker said on Thursday.
Purchases of industrial office spaces made up the three largest deals by value, as MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest supplier of 5G smartphone chips, acquired an office building in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) for NT$3.26 billion and memory module supplier Adata Technology Co (威剛) bought an office building in the same district for NT$2.62 billion, it said.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
In addition, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip tester and packager, purchased an office building in Kaohsiung’s Nantze Industrial Park (楠梓工業區) for NT$2.25 billion, it said.
Demand remains healthy, although a level 3 COVID-19 alert slowed the market considerably, Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan senior director Billy Yen (顏炳立) said.
A recovery in the commercial property market is looming as authorities are bringing the outbreak under control, Yen said, adding that ample liquidity and low interest rates would continue to lend support.
By comparison, land deals were resilient, totaling NT$66.9 billion last quarter, which was comfortably higher than the five-year average of NT$55 billion for the same period, thanks to the release of large plots of commercial land in New Taipei City and Taichung, Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan said.
Taipei-based Highwealth Construction Corp (興富發) spent NT$8.53 billion on commercial land in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊), setting a new record for the district and the special municipality, the broker said.
Taichung’s Shuinan Economic and Trade Park (水湳經貿園區) was the site of another major land deal worth NT$7.2 billion, which translated to NT$2.8 million per ping (3.3m2), it said.
Land near the Taichung High Speed Rail Station was sold for NT$4.42 billion as funds flew to central Taiwan to take advantage of improving infrastructure facilities, it said.
Looking forward, Yen said that prices for office buildings might increase on the back of robust demand, despite current disruptions from the COVID-19 outbreak.
However, industrial land prices might have peaked and would slow a bit with continued demand from logistic and warehousing service providers, he said.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS