Taiwan real estate market waits with bated breath as election holds prospect of pro-Beijing president
- Taipei is Taiwan’s most expensive city, where prime office space at the Xinyi district near the Taipei 101 skyscraper costs on average US$1,250 per sq ft to buy
- Taipei’s residential units can be had at US$900 per sq ft, about a quarter of the US$3,570 per sq ft in Hong Kong
Excitement is creeping into Taiwan’s property market, as the race for the self-ruled island’s presidential race heats up ahead of next year’s election, holding the prospect of a new head of government who would be more friendly towards mainland China.
Commercial property prices, up 18 per cent at an average of US$1,322 per square foot since Tsai Ing-wen swept to victory in 2016 for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), may break out into a bull market, depending who gets to occupy the seat of government on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard.
“Presidential elections do have some impact on the property market,” said Erin Ting, Savills Taiwan’s research director. “Each political party has a different attitude for cross-strait relations and this will further impact the communication and cooperation between Taiwan and China.”
The politics of Taiwan, administered separately from mainland China since 1949, swings between periods of rapprochement and hostility with Beijing, which regards the island of 23 million people as a renegade province that has to be unified by force if necessary. The occupant of the Taiwan president’s chair determines the island’s relations with mainland China, where an estimated 1 million Taiwanese live, work and study, and where an estimated US$150 billion had been invested as of 2008.
Two major political parties have held Taiwan’s presidency since universal suffrage and free elections were introduced.