Some time ago my mother-in-law started urging me to buy a house. She did so by relating the Chinese folk tale Five Sons (五子登科), from which derive the five modern “necessities of life”: silver (money), wife, children, house, and car. Without doubt, housing has been the most expensive and fraught of the five necessities. First…
High prices, a dysfunctional rental market, and limited public housing make it difficult for many citizens to find a suitable place to live. Liu Wei-ting has a graduate degree in urban planning and is six years into a career as a manager of an engineering consulting firm, but he says he has little hope of…
In August, Taiwan’s Directorate General of Budget, Accounting & Statistics revised its GDP growth forecast for 2018 upward to 2.69% due mainly to increasing private investment. Government investment is also expected to increase this year by 5.06%, with the authorities aiming to spend NT$420 billion (about US$13.8 billion) on infrastructure over the next four years…
As confidence returns to real estate, Taiwan must take steps to ensure its real estate market champions transparency and security and remains a thriving destination for global investment. In the recently published 2017 Taiwan White Paper, the Real Estate Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei commends the Taiwan government for recent efforts…
Faced with a tepid home property market, Taiwan’s life insurers are increasingly investing in high-yield overseas property. Taiwan’s cash-rich life insurers have scant investment opportunities at home, as yield levels have flagged in recent years amidst an overheated property market and weak rental growth. Insurers are constrained by minimum yield requirements set by the Financial…
More can be done, say experts, particularly through government incentives, education, and retrofitting old buildings. Green buildings would seem to be perfect for hot climates. They’re cool (literally) and energy-efficient. They save money and may even contribute to saving the planet. Why then aren’t more of Taiwan’s commercial and domestic buildings green? According to…
Tourism from China buoyed Taiwan’s hotel sector during former President Ma Ying-jeou’s eight years in office, spurring hoteliers to refurbish aging properties and add thousands of new rooms to the market. Resilient demand helped hotels post enviable earnings. That golden era ended swiftly with the inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen in May. Irked by Tsai’s…
Developers recently have deserted the luxury segment for smaller units with lower selling prices Following a decade or more of booming business, housing construction in Taiwan has been stuck in the throes of a bearish market. Developers have been slashing prices to stimulate demand. As investment-oriented buyers have largely retreated from the market due to…
The Japanese property market is heating up as global buyers show increasing interest in prime areas of Tokyo, the world’s largest metropolitan area. Through May, the number of existing condominiums sold in Tokyo increased by 5.4% to 16,152 units year-on-year, while existing detached house sales rose by 14.3% on an annual basis to 8,224 units,…
High transaction costs are affecting foreign investors’ interest in Taiwanese real estate, while Taiwan’s institutional investors are looking abroad. As compared with some major Asian markets, Taiwan’s real estate market has been dominated by domestic investors. While freehold ownership is attractive to foreign investors, the low yield levels and a dearth of investment-grade properties are…
