The total value of commercial property transactions, in terms of floor price, may exceed NT$30 billion (US$938 million) next quarter, with the funds flowing to Taipei County given a lack of properties for sale in Taipei City, real estate service provider DTZ (戴德梁行) said yesterday.
That would be more than double the NT$12 billion aggregate asking price for properties already sold and still on the market for this quarter.
“Sales of commercial properties just took off and the growth momentum will remain strong the rest of the year,” DTZ general manager Billy Yen (顏炳立) told a news conference.
The recent record-high prices for office space in Taipei City’s different districts lend support to his optimism, Yen said.
Last week, the Central Deposit Insurance Corp (中央存保) auctioned a 10-story building housing Chinfon Commercial Bank’s (慶豐銀行) former Taipei headquarters for a record NT$2.56 billion, or a premium of 75.3 percent.
All eyes are now on today’s auction of Chinfon’s stake — 1,905 ping (6,300m²) of office space — in Taipei Financial Center (台北金融中心), which has reportedly drawn nearly 20 potential bidders.
Yen said all major domestic life insurance companies had expressed an interest in real estate investments valued at more than NT$1 billion, but had been unable to find suitable targets.
Institutional investors may have no choice but to settle for properties in Taipei County, which is due to be upgraded to a special municipality by the end of the year, Yen said.
The ongoing construction to extend the mass rapid transit system will make investments in the county commercially desirable and practical, he said.
Yen said he did not expect the auction today to go over NT$650,000 per ping because the property is two decades old and located in Songshan District (松山) rather than the prime Xinyi District (信義).
“A higher-than-expected price would show that there’s no limit to commercial property [prices],” he said.
Sinyi Realty Co (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed housing brokerage, said in a statement yesterday that the auction might be settled above NT$1 million per ping because of its relative proximity to Taipei Songshan Airport.
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