Residential and commercial property transactions in the six special municipalities totaled about 19,000 units last month, up 3.7 percent from July and 14.4 percent from a year earlier, data released by the local governments on Wednesday last week showed.
An increase in the supply of pre-sale units, more working days per month and the stabilization of sales in Tainan and Kaohsiung led to the higher number of transactions last month, Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) research manager Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德) said.
Housing sales last month in Tainan rose 9.9 percent monthly to 2,017 units, and in Kaohsiung they rebounded 9.1 percent to 2,925 units, following declines in July of 18.2 percent and 20.2 percent respectively, the data showed.
 
                    Photo: CNA
The sales rebound in Tainan came amid increased home construction in some areas — in Annan District (安南) — in particular, and a rebound in purchases in districts near the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區), Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) said.
Housing transactions last month in Annan totaled 390 units, up 12.7 percent from July, the most of any district in Tainan, ahead of Yongkang District (永康) with 241 units and Anping District (安平) with 186 units.
In Kaohsiung, the increase last month came mainly from buyers looking for homes for their own use, Taiwan Realty said.
In Taipei, housing sales fell 1.6 percent from July to 2,236 units, while transactions in New Taipei City dropped 4.9 percent to 4,468 units, data showed.
Property sales in Taoyuan totaled 3,482 units, down 1.6 percent from July, while transactions in Taichung rose 16.7 percent to 4,027 due to booming pre-sales, data indicated.
Housing transactions in the six municipalities from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31 totaled 169,137 units, up 0.2 percent from a year earlier.
Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said she has a cautious outlook for housing transactions in Taiwan over the rest of the year because of rising interest rates worldwide.

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