Election Inspires Excitement About Taiwan’s Residential Market

Taipei–Real estate in Taiwan is booming due to expectations that money from mainland China will soon spread to the area.Once considered one of Asia’s poorest investment opportunities, the Nationalist Party’s win in the March 22 presidential election helped buoy Taiwan’s markets, The Wall Street Journal reports.Incoming president Ma Ying-jeou has said he will open the country’s real estate market to Chinese investors.Home prices in Taiwan have increased 30 percent since the election and could, by the year’s close, be 60 percent higher, according to Billy Yen, general manager for property brokerage DTZ Taiwan.Since the vote, luxury apartments in the Taipei suburbs have increased more than 50 percent to more than 1.5 million New Taiwan dollars ($49,259) per ping. A ping is equivalent to roughly 36 square feet. Hong Van, managing director of Taiwan for CB Richard Ellis, told the Journal that Taipei apartments now sell for about $1,369 a square foot.For most of the past decade, homes in Taiwan haven’t kept pace with the rest of the area. High-end property prices in Taipei currently sell for one-third to one-half the price per square foot of homes in Hong Kong.