Housing transactions in the six special municipalities totaled 19,824 units last month, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier, brokers said, citing government data.
Last month’s data mainly reflected deals made in February, when the pinch of the COVID-19 pandemic was not yet evident, they said.
Taoyuan posted the largest improvement, with housing transactions soaring 36.6 percent year-on-year to 3,676 units, local government data showed.
Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) attributed the pickup to the completion of two presale residential projects in the municipality.
Houses in Taoyuan have increasingly gained in popularity in the past few year years due to relatively affordable home prices and improving infrastructures, such as the Asian Silicon Valley project, the Taoyuan Aerotropolis (桃園航空城) and the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Access MRT, Taiwan Realty research manager Chen Ping-chen (陳炳辰) said.
That helped boost Taoyuan’s population by 200,000 in the past five years to 2.25 million, the broker said, adding that the trend fueled real demand and asset allocation needs.
Taipei reported a 20.8 percent increase in housing deals from a year earlier to 2,483, also aided by transfers of newly completed projects in Nangang District (南港), Chen said.
Zhongshan District (中山) was another hot spot, he said.
Transactions in New Taipei City rose 5.1 percent to 4,849 and surged 18.7 percent to 3,826 in Taichung, data from the local governments showed.
However, southern Taiwan put up a weak showing, with transactions dropping 4.9 percent in Tainan and plunging 18.9 percent to 3,088 in Kaohsiung, official tallies showed.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) spokesman Jay Hsieh (謝志傑) attributed the fall in Kaohsiung to a higher base last year, when a new residential complex was completed.
The spread of COVID-19 in February was relatively mild in Taiwan and abroad, except for China and South Korea, but its impact might start to emerge going forward, analysts said.
The virus has since rapidly swept across Europe and the US, with no sign of easing, dashing hopes of a return to normalcy soon, Hsieh said.
Businesses in Taiwan cannot stay above a looming global recession induced partly by draconian isolation measures worldwide to contain the pandemic, Hsieh said.
There is no room for optimism as figures of business closures and people on unpaid leave escalate, Hsieh said.
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