Taiwan’s real estate market has been growing steadily more buoyant since the end of 2007. There has been steady appreciation in commercial properties’ capital values, and transaction volumes have also been steadily rising. The new KMT-backed government is keen to create closer ties with mainland China to boost the island’s economy, and also to promote property development in the region in general.

Property development in Taiwan has exploded in the last six years, after relaxing of rules that prevented foreign investment in the country. Taiwan’s new president, Ma Ying-jeou, also recently invited a group of Chinese real estate tycoons and self-made billionaires to the country to look at investing in the region. The president aims, through these new and closer ties with mainland China, to increase annual tourist flows to Taiwan from the current level of 80,000 to at least one million per year. This will be achieved by previously prohibited flights directly across the Taiwan straight. These goals have also been endorsed by China’s current president, Hu Jintao.

The promotion of property development in Taiwan has been summarized in a plan which articulates ten new major construction projects, worth an approximate 500 billion to the local economy over a period of five years. This plan was put forward in 2003, but only approved by the government in 2005. Various construction projects will be completed within a very short period of time, aiming to boost Taiwan’s international profile, and having corollary effects of increasing leisure and tourism investments in Taiwan, boosting the Taiwanese property market, and increasing property development in Taiwan. The title ‘New Ten’ differentiates them from the Ten Major Projects put forward by a former Taiwanese president in the 1970s.