Nearly 80 percent of Taiwan’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) are looking at wealth gains this year, with real-estate investment most likely to win their attention and inflation topping their list of risks, a survey by property consultancy REPro Knight Frank Taiwan showed yesterday.
The findings made super-rich Taiwanese more optimistic than their global peers, only 68 percent of whom are upbeat about wealth increase, research director Howard Zhan (詹宗煌) told a news conference in Taipei, defining UHNWIs as people with investable assets in excess of US$30 million.
Despite the financial turmoil and economic headwinds, 40 percent of super-rich people worldwide last year saw their assets increase, with 17 percent posting gains of more than 10 percent, Zhan said.
Photo: Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Times
That meant the remaining 60 percent saw their assets contract.
Taiwan’s UHNWIs fared worse last year, with only 26 percent seeing their wealth increase and 74 percent suffering losses, the survey showed.
Asked about risks ahead, 67 percent of the world’s super-rich named inflation as the biggest downside risk, followed by interest rate hikes at 59 percent, geopolitical tensions at 53 percent and recession at 13 percent, Zhan said.
As for opportunities, 46 percent of global UHNWIs favored investing in real estate, followed by technology businesses at 33 percent, equity markets at 28 percent and fixed-income products at 15 percent, the survey showed.
Real estate is the most favored option, because of its resilience to inflation, Zhan said.
Taiwan’s very wealthy people lag behind their regional and global peers in terms of real-estate investment appetite, with only 13 percent saying they intend to buy residential properties this year, compared with 16 percent for the Asia-Pacific area and 15 percent globally, Zhan said.
Taiwan’s UHNWIs own an average of 2.9 houses, compared with an average of 4.9 houses among their regional peers and 4.2 houses globally, the survey found.
In addition, 40 percent of the super-rich in Taiwan prefer owning real-estate properties overseas, higher than 26 percent among their peers in the region and 28 percent globally, it said.
Japan is the most popular target at 58 percent, followed by the US at 47 percent, Canada at 37 percent and Australia at 21 percent, the survey showed, adding that Singapore, Vietnam and the UK also rank high with more than 10 percent.
REPro Knight Frank Taiwan general manager Cliff So (蘇銳強) said that the ban on transfers of presale house contracts would make developers more cautious about launching new products and slow overall residential property transactions.
Demand for factory and office buildings would remain strong as companies shift production bases back to Taiwan, So said.
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
NOT TO WORRY: Some people are concerned funds might continue moving out of the country, but the central bank said financial account outflows are not unusual in Taiwan Taiwan’s outbound investments hit a new high last year due to investments made by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other major manufacturers to boost global expansion, the central bank said on Thursday. The net increase in outbound investments last year reached a record US$21.05 billion, while the net increase in outbound investments by Taiwanese residents reached a record US$31.98 billion, central bank data showed. Chen Fei-wen (陳斐紋), deputy director of the central bank’s Department of Economic Research, said the increase was largely due to TSMC’s efforts to expand production in the US and Japan. Investments by Vanguard International
WARNING SHOT: The US president has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all imported vehicles, and similar or higher duties on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors US President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that a trade deal with China was “possible” — a key target in the US leader’s tariffs policy. The US in 2020 had already agreed to “a great trade deal with China” and a new deal was “possible,” Trump said. Trump said he expected Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to visit the US, without giving a timeline for his trip. Trump also said that he was talking to China about TikTok, as the US seeks to broker a sale of the popular app owned by Chinese firm ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動). Trump last week said that he had
RSS