Lawmakers should attach clauses that would permit loss-making transfers among joint buyers for loan arrangement reasons to an amendment to the Equalization of Land Rights Act (平均地權條例) that aims to clamp down on speculative buying in the property market, Shin Ruenn Construction Co (新潤機構) chairman Ben Huang (黃文辰) said yesterday.
Huang, who is also vice chairman of the New Taipei City Real Estate Development Association, told a news conference that it is odd that the amendment would subject property purchases by legal entities to prior approval, as it would contravene free market principles.
The bans could dampen buying interest and stretch transaction periods, but are unlikely to trigger substantial price corrections given spikes in land, building materials and labor costs, Huang said.
Photo: Chen Yung-chi, Taipei Times
“Shin Ruenn would stand by its construction schedule despite economic uncertainty and unfavorable legislation,” he said.
Developers and builders would defend the 20 percent profit margin if 25 percent gains turn out to be unfeasible, Huang said.
Developers would price their projects more reasonably, rather than engage in price concessions to facilitate deals, he said.
A flat market is also favorable for developers that seek to build land stock, he said, adding that land prices have been unreasonably high in recent years.
The company said its affiliated Shin Ruenn Development Co (新潤興業) is to post NT$35.5 billion (US$1.16 billion) in profit over the next four years in line with a sustainable business strategy, and it expects the ongoing economic slowdown to make property prices more reasonable next year.
The Taipei-based developer is due to recognize profit from joint ventures at two pre-sale projects, Good Life of Metro Heart I and II in Taoyuan’s Luzhu District (蘆竹), Shin Ruenn Development chairman Kuo Chang-geng (郭長庚) said.
The projects near the Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line have sold out, and Shin Ruenn Development could divide a profit of NT$1.23 billion upon their completion next year, Kuo said.
The company has sold 99 percent of the Shin Ruenn double complex in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口) and posted a 94 percent sales rate for the Manor House in Taoyuan’s Dayuan District (大園), he said.
The developer has participated in the development of Fancy World in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) and Sky Forest in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港).
Those projects have sales rates of more than 80 percent, which meant the company has divided NT$930 million and NT$5.22 billion for each, Kuo said.
Sales rates of more than 50 percent give developers and builders confidence to continue with construction without worrying over cash flow, profitability and other issues, Huang said.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
It is challenging to build infrastructure in much of Europe. Constrained budgets and polarized politics tend to undermine long-term projects, forcing officials to react to emergencies rather than plan for the future. Not in Austria. Today, the country is to officially open its Koralmbahn tunnel, the 5.9 billion euro (US$6.9 billion) centerpiece of a groundbreaking new railway that will eventually run from Poland’s Baltic coast to the Adriatic Sea, transforming travel within Austria and positioning the Alpine nation at the forefront of logistics in Europe. “It is Austria’s biggest socio-economic experiment in over a century,” said Eric Kirschner, an economist at Graz-based Joanneum
BUBBLE? Only a handful of companies are seeing rapid revenue growth and higher valuations, and it is not enough to call the AI trend a transformation, an analyst said Artificial intelligence (AI) is entering a more challenging phase next year as companies move beyond experimentation and begin demanding clear financial returns from a technology that has delivered big gains to only a small group of early adopters, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Taiwan said yesterday. Most organizations have been able to justify AI investments through cost recovery or modest efficiency gains, but few have achieved meaningful revenue growth or long-term competitive advantage, the consultancy said in its 2026 AI Business Predictions report. This growing performance gap is forcing executives to reconsider how AI is deployed across their organizations, it said. “Many companies