Taiwan started off this year with the fastest increase in commercial property sales, which soared 60 percent from a year earlier to US$1.3 billion last quarter, a report by Real Capital Analytics (RCA) found on Monday.
Taiwan is one of a handful of markets worldwide that have kept a lid on the COVID-19 pandemic and avoided a second wave, allowing its commercial real-estate market to power on, driven almost entirely by local companies expanding capacity alongside a strong economy, it said, adding that all signs point to yet another vibrant year for property investment.
Taiwan’s GDP growth last quarter hit 8.16 percent and might continue to expand on the back of strong demand for electronics and non-tech products, official data showed.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
However, investment activity across major income-producing property types in the Asia-Pacific region slipped 12 percent year-on-year to US$29.6 billion, with only five of major commercial markets seeing higher deal volumes, it said.
China overtook Japan as the most active commercial property market by trading value, which reached US$8 billion, representing a 4 percent increase from the same period last year, it said.
Momentum in Taiwan and Hong Kong is building up in light of large double-digit percentage gains, it said, adding that activity in Singapore jumped by 200 percent due to a low base last year, it said.
Japan was a drag on overall investment in the region, with trading value shrinking to US$6.9 billion, it said.
While Japan fared the weakest, its result masks the resilient performance of Tokyo, which saw a robust cross-border investment appetite, it said.
Dealmaking in South Korea also trended down, even though the market posted record levels of activity last year, it said.
The hotel sector remained the weakest, with trading volume plunging more than 50 percent over the past 12 months as the number of deals dried up, it said.
About US$1.5 billion in hotel deals have fallen through since the beginning of last year, RCA data showed.
In particular, deals in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia have almost all evaporated.
The comeback in retail investment activity continued, with sales rising to US$5.7 billion, or a 2 percent increase from a year earlier, it said.
The retail recovery corresponded with price falls across major markets, driven by retailers rationalizing their occupancy strategies throughout the past 12 months.
Furthermore, some Asia-Pacific markets have been able to return to normalcy, allowing trading operations to revive and draw attention from investors, it said.
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