The Yale Community in Sanxia of suburban Taipei County is recognized for its artistic community garden and landscape, while the D.F.H. Digital Fiber Home in Linkou has earned fame as a vanguard technological community in Taiwan. The Asia Trend in the Xinyi District offers the amenities and luxury of a 5-star hotel and the SKY Mansion in Neihu is located in the area with the most growth potential in Taipei City.

These upscale projects share the common goal of providing better living quality through an integrated residential community plan.

Due to the lack of central planning, most of the old residential communities in Taiwan are a hodge-podge of buildings and public spaces that, according to Farglory Chairman Chao Teng-hsiung, can only be improved by starting from scratch. Towards the end of improving living standards, Farglory Group has initiated several large community construction projects in Taiwan, including in Linkou and Sanxia of suburban Taipei. When completed, each community will be home to thousands of families, with modern public facilities and stores to meet the daily needs of residents.

While the Sanxia community was designed around an artistic motif and Linkou was designed to showcase the newest in residential technologies, they share one commonality--to create a lasting value in residential space.

"The materials we use will last hundreds of years, while the interior design and decoration will remain current and comfortable for entire lifetimes," Chao stressed. "This is what we mean by creating everlasting home value."

To create this value, Chao pays as much attention to community plans as to location and land selection.

"We always consider how location will affect the value of our residential developments several years down the road," Chao emphasized. "Another factor in value is the community's growth potential--if people live in a place that meet or surpass the demands of their lifestyles, then that location will prosper. That's why we plan every new development with a full range of public facilities."

Integrated interior design

Adding to the value of any home is smart interior design and lasting equipment. To this end Farglory has teamed up with Japan's Matsushita Group. "When I visited Matsushita Group in April, I was especially impressed with its integrated and space-efficient kitchen design," Chao said.

Since its founding 90 years ago, Matsushita Group has developed nearly 130,000 models of home appliances under the internationally recognized brand name Panasonic.

In an agreement with Matsushita earlier this year, Farglory will be offering a full line of home appliances to home buyers at 10 to 20 percent lower than market prices in Japan. This is an exclusive savings that Farglory has secured for its customers. "The Farglory Group will make no profit from this deal and pass on all savings to our home buyers," Chao said.Market outlook

A slender man in his mid-60s, Chao has witnessed several boom and bust cycles of the real estate market during his 40 years of experience in Taiwan's construction and land development industry and he's confident that the market is currently on an upswing.

"Though Taiwan already has a relatively high rate of home ownership, around two thirds of the existing residential space is over 20 years old, most in need of replacement," Chao said. Coupled with low vacancy rates, he added, "these factors will create healthy market demand."

He observed that many homes built in the early years are simple shelters without a proper floor plan and lacking interior design. This type of housing is becoming obsolete as living standards rise along with family incomes.

Another factor behind Chao's optimism is Taiwan's relatively low home prices. "In terms of average home price to family income, Taiwan's residential real estate is far less expensive than those in neighboring Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong," he said.

Dedication to perfection

Farglory and Matsushita of Japan inked an agreement for cross-border collaboration earlier this year based on the complimentary nature of their businesses and their singular corporate mission of improving living quality for all. Furthermore, the founders of the two groups follow a similar path to success. Both had humble beginnings, starting their careers at an early age, and after achieving success, constantly gave back to society.

Farglory Founder Chao began his career as a construction worker after dropping out of junior high school. Through the decades in this field, Chao developed the habit of inspecting construction sites every Saturday afternoon, leaving no details to chance.

Chao's dedication to his construction career has earned accolades from customers and society alike. For him, success for an enterprise comes not only from praiseworthy achievements or profitability for shareholders and employees. What's most important, Chao stressed, is to take care of each customer by providing his or her family with the most suitable and comfortable living environment.

Streamlined services

Among the leading construction companies in Taiwan, Farglory distinguishes itself with its streamlined services that ensure consistent quality. Dubbed 'One Line,' Farglory's standardized process begins with land procurement and continues to after-sales service. Like a production line, each step involves Farglory's proprietary operating procedures and quality control, which have been recognized within the industry for their advantage, but never successfully replicated.

Having begun his career in real estate in his early teens as a construction worker, Chao worked his way up through the industry, one rung at a time. By working through every stage of real estate development, Chao has developed an intimate knowledge of every detail in the industry. The success of Farglory's One Line illustrates this.

"In vying for better job openings, as a construction worker in those days, we had to pounce on every learning opportunity to become competitive," recounted Chao. "That steep learning curve made the difference between a merely good construction project and a great one."

To this day, Chao believes the quality of Farglory's buildings rests upon the superior skills and knowledge of his employees. Therefore, Farglory has in place an elaborate corporate training system and a standardized skills and service testing process, which ensures that every employee performs optimally to provide customers with the best possible product.