Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), the banking arm of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), set a floor price for its collateral office building on Zhongshan N Road in Taipei that was so high it scared away bidders at yesterday’s auction, local realtors said yesterday.
“A 20 percent discount should be knocked off its asking price” of NT$1.5 billion (US$46 million) for the 11-story building, Jeffrey Huang (黃增福), an assistant manager at Evertrust Rehouse Co’s (永慶房屋) research and development department, said over the phone yesterday.
REASONABLE PRICE
Jhally Chiu, chief executive of the research department at Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋), also said that a reasonable price range for the 37-year-old building should fall between NT$1.2 billion and NT$1.3 billion.
Chiu and Huang agreed that location was another reason that the building had attracted no interested bidders yesterday since it is not situated in a major business district.
FLOOR SPACE
Chiu said the building, which sits on a 294-ping (971m²) plot of land with total floor space of approximately 2,610 ping, will have a land price of NT$5.09 million per ping or a floor price of NT$574,600 per ping if it closed at NT$1.5 billion.
These values are 20 percent higher than the average floor price of between NT$420,000 and NT$460,000 per ping in the neighborhood.
POTENTIAL
The property will be of greater potential if the neighboring K Hotel (柯達飯店) can also be acquired to free up more space for a new luxury housing project, he said.
With a land price of more than NT$5 million per ping, potential buyers could afford to acquire commercial properties in business districts in more traditional locations such as the Nanjing E Rd business district or the business district at the intersection between Minsheng E Road and Dunhua N Rd, Huang said.
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