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.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
Call it an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and weaved on a clackety vintage loom, then sold at a premium to global denim connoisseurs. Unlike their mass-produced cousins, the tough garments crafted at the small Momotaro Jeans factory in southwest Japan are designed to be worn for decades, and come with a lifetime repair warranty. On site, Yoshiharu Okamoto gently dips cotton strings into a tub of deep blue liquid, which stains his hands and nails as he repeats the process. The cotton is imported from Zimbabwe, but the natural indigo they use is harvested in Japan —
HON HAI LURKS: The ‘Nikkei’ reported that Foxconn’s interest in Nissan accelerated the Honda-merger effort out of fears it might be taken over by the Taiwanese firm Nissan Motor Co has become the latest buyout target in Japan as it explores a merger with Honda Motor Co and faces an overture from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally. Shares in Nissan yesterday jumped 24 percent, the most on record, to hit the daily limit, after the two Japanese automakers acknowledged that talks are ongoing to better position themselves for competitive challenges during a time of upheaval in the global auto industry. Foxconn — a Taipei-based manufacturer of iPhones, which has been investing heavily in factories to build electric vehicles — has also
RSS