Commercial property transactions last quarter surged 88.9 percent year-on-year to NT$52.2 billion (US$1.68 billion), uplifted by the liquidation sales of buildings owned by a real-estate investment trust (REIT) fund, global commercial property broker Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan said yesterday.
The Shin Kong No. 1 REIT (新光一號) fund sold its six buildings in Taipei for NT$30.7 billion that accounted for 60 percent of the trading volume during the April-to-June quarter, the company said.
All six buildings generate regular rent incomes and therefore attracted institutional investment buyers, Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan said, adding that the market would put up a lackluster performance in the absence of the REIT deals.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
The buildings saw their value grow threefold from NT$11.3 billion upon the fund’s launch in 2005, therefore encourage domestic REIT funds, which are not as popular as peers elsewhere, analysts said.
It is not clear at this juncture how much the beneficiaries would receive following the liquidation.
Industrial properties intended for self-occupancy made up the bulk of commercial property sales, Cushman & Wakefield said.
In the first half of this year, commercial property transactions held virtually steady from a year earlier.
At the same time, land deals amounted to NT$20 billion, higher than NT$16.3 billion in the preceding quarter, but the first-half sum of NT$36.3 billion marked the lowest since 2016, when the government introduced combined property tax to cool the market, the consultancy said.
The muted showing reflected conservative approach on the part of developers and builders in response to interest rate hikes, credit controls and unfavorable measures to ban presale house contract transfers, it said.
Developers and builders have some land stock on hand and would rather stay on the sidelines until the nation’s economic and political uncertainty settles, said Billy Yen (顏炳立), managing director at Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan.
Looking forward, the market is likely to see further transaction declines with stable prices, Yen said, adding that downside risks loom larger than upside surprises in the foreseeable future.
Taiwan is to elect new legislators and a president, and candidates tend to pledge measures to make house prices more affordable, he said.
Housing transactions this year would fall 240,000 to 250,000, suggesting little improvement in the second half, Yen said.
Still, developers and builders display keen interest in urban renewal and MRT joint development projects, as they do not require land plots and are not subjected to credit controls, Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan said.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
Handset camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Sunday reported a 6.71 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for the third quarter, despite revenue last month hitting the highest level in 11 months. Third-quarter revenue was NT$17.68 billion (US$581.2 million), compared with NT$18.95 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The figure was in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$17.9 billion, but missed the market consensus estimate of NT$18.97 billion. The third-quarter revenue was a 51.44 percent increase from NT$11.67 billion in the second quarter, as the quarter is usually the peak
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
RSS