Residential properties in the Tao Zhu Yin Yuan (陶朱隱園), a distinctive double-helix tower in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), officially went on sale yesterday.
The announcement was made by the tower’s builder, BES Engineering Corp (中華工程), which declined to publicize pricing information to protect the privacy of potential buyers.
However, real-estate sources said that properties on the lower floors would sell for at least NT$3 million (US$91,609) per ping (3.3m2), with higher prices on the building’s upper floors.
Photo: Hu Shun-hsiang, Taipei Times
Given that each unit is about 300 ping, properties in the tower would likely start at about NT$900 million.
Designed by Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut, the Tao Zhu Yin Yuan is inspired by the double-helix structure of DNA, with each floor from levels 2 to 21 rotating 4.5° clockwise, or a total of 90°.
As a result, each of the tower’s 40 units has a large terrace with an unimpeded view of the sky and allows for the planting of seven large trees, the building’s Web site says.
Each unit also features a 50-ping “sky garden” where residents can plant a garden, while the building’s public areas include a “forest” on the first floor with a 10m waterfall and a 25m swimming pool in the basement, the site says.
Chen Ping-chen (陳炳辰), spokesman for the Chinese-language My Housing Monthly (住展雜誌), said the tower’s NT$3 million per ping price tag likely represented “the ceiling” for luxury properties in Taipei.
According to the government’s actual price registration system, the highest-priced residential complex in Taipei is One Park Taipei (元利信義聯勤), twin skyscrapers on the east end of Daan Forest Park (大安森林公園), which previously sold for as high as NT$2.99 million per ping, Chen said.
Nevertheless, the Tao Zhu Yin Yuan’s home prices represent a “correction” from the past few years — when they were reportedly expected to go for as high as NT$6 million per ping — possibly due to the central bank’s efforts to clamp down on housing speculation, he said.
Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) senior manager Chen Ting-chung (陳定中) said that although construction on the property was completed eight years ago, the limited supply of new luxury homes in Xinyi District — a prime business district where Taipei 101 is located — meant that there would likely still be solid demand from buyers.
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
From George Clooney to LeBron James, celebrities in the US have cashed in on tequila’s soaring popularity, but in Mexico, producers of the agave plant used to make the country’s most famous liquor are nursing a nasty hangover. Instead of bringing a long period of prosperity for farmers of the spiky succulent, the tequila boom has created a supply glut that sent agave prices slumping. Mexican tequila exports surged from 224 million liters in 2018 to a record 402 million last year, according to the Tequila Regulatory Council, which oversees qualification for the internationally recognized denomination of origin label. The US, Germany, Spain,