Property transactions last month totaled 21,712 units in the nation’s six special municipalities, shrinking 10.9 percent from a month earlier due to government plans to cool the market and fewer working days, real-estate brokers said on Monday.
The volume was an increase of 0.8 percent from the same time last year, local government data showed.
Taichung was the only municipality to report that its number of deals increased, rising 18.3 percent month-on-month to 4,894, while transactions in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Tainan and Kaohsiung declined.
Photo: CNA
Taichung fared well thanks to a spike in job opportunities after Taiwanese companies shifted some manufacturing facilities back home from China, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) spokesman Jay Hsieh (謝志傑) said.
Improving infrastructure, especially construction of the city’s mass rapid transit rail system, is attracting buyers with real demand and investment needs, Hsieh said.
That explained why housing prices in Taichung outpaced those elsewhere in Taiwan, a trend that drew the central bank’s attention, he said.
New Taipei City reported 5,549 transactions, while Taipei reported 2,699, translating into a monthly decline of 12.4 percent and 13.9 percent respectively.
Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) attributed the retreat to last month’s fewer working days, as Taiwanese celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ten National Day, research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said, adding that the situation would improve this month in the absence of holiday disruptions.
Taoyuan reported that property transactions fell 20.6 percent to 3,487 units, the weakest among the six municipalities.
Housing transactions totaled 1,860 in Tainan and 3,223 in Kaohsiung, dropping 12.7 percent and 8 percent respectively from a month earlier.
Evertrust said it suspected that talk of credit controls by policymakers to stop property price hikes pushed some buyers to the sidelines.
Tseng and Hsieh said they are expecting the housing market to remain stable for the rest of the year, as it is the high season for property sales.
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