Land deals last year soared more than twofold to NT$277.6 billion (US$8.45 billion), as developers actively built up land stock, but it would turn conservative this year amid the central bank’s lingering bid to cool real-estate lending, CBRE Ltd Taiwan (世邦魏理仕台灣) said yesterday.
The value suggested a 116 percent increase from a year earlier, as developers and builders raised land stock, encouraged by the housing fever in the first half of last year, CBRE said.
The uptrend was most pronounced in Taichung, where land deals amounted to NT$58.3 billion, or 21 percent of the total, it said.
Photo: CNA
Taichung-based Full Wang International Development Co (富旺國際開發) last month acquired a 945.31 ping (3,125m2) land plot for NT$1.24 billion, which it aims to turn into apartment complexes targeting first-home buyers, the company’s regulatory filing said.
The plot is near the city’s Shuinan Gateway Park (水湳經貿園區) and the government has completed construction on related public works, Full Wang said.
Meanwhile, commercial properties fared weaker, shrinking 7 percent to NT$125.1 billion last year due partly to a high base the previous year, CBRE said.
Industrial factories underpinned the segment, as tech firms bought idle factories to expand their capacity, CBRE real-estate appraisal head Winston Shih (施甫學) said.
Move-in ready factories in science parks are in demand, accounting for NT$66.1 billion of transactions last year, nearly a three-fold increase to a new high, Shih said.
That included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) buying an idle plant in Tainan from flat-panel display maker Innolux Corp (群創) for NT$17.14 billion; Micron Technology Taiwan Inc (台灣美光) acquiring an industrial property in Tainan from flat-panel supplier AUO Corp (友達) for NT$7.4 billion; and ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) obtaining two industrial complexes in Kaohsiung for NT$5.26 billion, CBRE data showed.
“The top 10 commercial property transactions are all related to industrial properties, an unprecedented phenomenon,” Shih said.
Developers would turn low-key this year to avoid riling up the central bank, which is to step up inspections of mortgage operations and land financing to slow real-estate lending, CBRE said.
However, industrial land prices would receive further support from the expansion needs of local tech firms, it said, adding that industrial land prices in central and southern Taiwan have advanced 6.5 percent to 10 percent over the past three years.
Local life insurers could display more activism this year if insurance regulators ease yield requirements, CBRE said.
INFRINGEMENT: The investigation comes after a complaint from Vicor Corp, with the company seeking a limited exclusion order as well as cease-and-desist orders, the ITA said The US International Trade Commission (USITC) has launched a Section 337 investigation naming Taiwanese technology companies, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), as respondents. The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) pledged assistance if needed. The USITC said on Friday in a statement that it had voted to institute an investigation under Section 337 of the US Tariff Act of 1930 into certain vertical power delivery systems, related components and computing devices incorporating such systems. The investigation covers 20 companies from Taiwan, China, Germany and the US, the commission said, adding that it
PACKAGING PUSH: The chipmaker said that it would begin ramping up silicon interposer production in New York in the first half of 2028 to support AI systems GlobalFoundries Inc shares gained as much as 7 percent after the chip manufacturer announced a five-year, US$2 billion deal to provide US production capacity to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). Under the agreement, announced on Thursday, GlobalFoundries is to help supply components known as silicon interposers. The US company is to rely on manufacturing at its facility in Malta, New York, and said it has the option to expand capacity “as customer demand grows.” An interposer is a small layer of silicon that sits between a chip and its packaging. It is home to the wires that carry electronic signals and
A man charged along with Super Micro Computer Inc co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw (廖益賢) of conspiring to send cutting-edge chips to China in violation of US export controls pleaded guilty, court documents said. Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun (孫廷瑋), a former outside contractor described by US authorities as a “fixer” who allegedly aided in the sales, pleaded guilty on Thursday at a hearing in federal court in New York as part of an agreement with prosecutors, court filings showed. Prosecutors claimed the men were part of a scheme to send Nvidia Corp-powered servers to an unnamed Southeast Asian company and then divert them to
SECOND-TOP MONTH: September revenue was 0.6 percent lower month-on-month, but despite the drop, it was the firm’s highest-ever sales report for the month Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported record quarterly revenue for last quarter, after sales last month hit the second-highest monthly level in the company’s history. Revenue in the quarter ended last month was NT$1.49 trillion (US$46.75 billion), up 17 percent from NT$1.27 trillion in the second quarter and exceeding the combined prediction of 19 LSEG SmartEstimate analysts of NT$1.46 trillion. Last quarter’s figure — which was up 12 percent from the midpoint of last year — also surpassed the company’s July estimates of US$44.6 billion to US$45.8 billion amid surging demand for the ramp-up of its advanced 2-nanometer technology, artificial