Commercial property sales remained weak last quarter, but land deals gained traction as builders and developers built up stocks of land, encouraged by a pickup in housing transactions, analysts said.
Land deals totaled NT$40.3 billion (US$1.38 billion) from January to last month, a 39 percent improvement from a year earlier, while commercial property transactions declined 34 percent to NT$8.8 billion over the period, global real-estate consultancy REPro Knight Frank (瑞普萊坊) said.
The figure for land deals with superficies rights marked the highest since 2010 as local builders and developers sought to make their presence felt in rezoning districts nationwide, said REPro Knight Frank researcher Andy Huang (黃舒衛), who is based in Taipei.
Residential and commercial land deals surged almost 80 percent to NT$32.2 billion last quarter, while industrial lot deals, the main driver over the past few quarters, took a 3 percent downturn to NT$7.3 billion, the consultancy’s quarterly report showed.
The trend suggests a recovery in developers’ confidence, Huang said, adding that local county and city governments lent their support by putting land plots in rezoning areas on the market.
Land-hunting interest was most evident in Kaohsiung, which saw NT12.6 billion of land deals, followed by New Taipei City with NT$9.5 billion and Taipei with NT$6.7 billion, the report said.
Huang said he holds a neutral view with a positive bias regarding the housing market’s spring sales season, which started on March 29 and lasts until the end of this month.
The confidence recovery extends to the superficies rights market as evidenced by the acquisition of a contract to develop a plot in Kaohsiung for NT$7.81 billion by Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), he said.
Government agencies have made concessions in royalty and rent charges to make superficies rights more attractive to potential buyers, he added.
The market for commercial properties remained mired in sluggish trade, underpinned by self-occupancy needs, the report said.
Pegatron Corp (和碩), Apple Inc’s second-largest iPhone assembler, bought an industrial complex in New Taipei City for NT$2.23 billion, it said, adding that flexible PCB producer Career Technology Co (嘉聯益), another Apple supplier, acquired an industrial compound in Taoyuan from silicon wafer maker Eversol Corp (旭晶) for NT$1.57 billion.
The market might see more excitement later this year because Core Pacific City Mall (京華城) is seeking a buyer. The mixed-use complex, which sits on a plot measuring 5,000 ping (16,529m2, is worth at least NT$40.6 billion, said Billy Yen (顏炳立), general manager of Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan, which is organizing an auction for the mall.
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