Last year's real estate transactions: commercial down, land up

DTZ held a press conference yesterday on "Q4 2013 Real Estate and 2014 Outlook," with commercial real estate and land transactions showing different trends in 2013. DTZ said that 2013 saw two very different stories in real estate transactions: commercial real estate transaction volume dropped sharply, while land transaction volume hit a 3-year high.

DTZ said that for the full year of 2013, commercial real estate purchase and sale transactions totaled NT$88.3 billion, below the level during the 2008 financial crisis and down 11.85% from 2012; among this, life insurance funds invested about NT$17.566 billion in real estate in 2013, accounting for 19.89% of the year's transaction volume, a sharp decrease of 70.94% from 2012.

DTZ estimated that the amount for sale in 2014 would be about NT$70 billion to NT$80 billion.

⟧ As for land transactions, the total land transaction amount for the full year of 2013 was NT$191.5 billion, hitting a 3-year high, of which surface rights accounted for 18.71%.

DTZ pointed out that looking ahead to 2014, because of the year-end elections, a reversal in the real estate market across Taiwan will be unavoidable. Although land is a raw material and can better hold up the market when the economic cycle turns, insufficient confidence in launching projects will still make it difficult for land prices to see chasing bids again.