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.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS