Taipei, May 4 (CNA) Transactions of residential and commercial property in Taiwan's six largest metropolitan areas rose more than 28 percent from a year earlier in April as momentum continued from March, when property developers listed large pre-order sale projects on the market.
Data compiled by the six city government land administration departments showed transactions of homes, shops and offices in Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung hit 19,145 units, up 28.1 percent from a year earlier and also up 4.1 percent from a month earlier.
The April transactions were also the highest monthly figure for five years, the data indicated.
Tseng Ching-der (曾敬德), a research manager with Sinyi Realty Inc., one of the largest property sales agents in Taiwan, said after the Lunar New Year holiday in February, buying in the local property market has been on the rise on the back of peak season effects.
Among the six cities, Kaohsiung, the largest city in southern Taiwan, enjoyed the highest year-on-year growth of 48.2 percent in April with the number of sold units at 3,707, the data showed, though on a month-on-month basis, the April figure was down 2.7 percent.
Hsieh Chi-chieh (謝志傑), a senior manager at Yung Ching Group, said the strong year-on-year housing transactions in Kaohsiung partly reflected the so-called "Han wave", which boosted optimism over the city's economic outlook, after Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) won the mayoral election in November.
In Tainan, also in southern Taiwan, transactions of residential and commercial property totaled 2,065 units, up 31.6 percent from a year earlier, the second highest growth among the six cities, indicating the property market in the south performed better than other areas in Taiwan.
In April, Taipei, the capital city, which is the most closely watched property market in Taiwan, saw transactions of homes, shops and offices, rise 25.1 percent from a year earlier to 2,241 units. The April figure was also up 9.1 percent from a month earlier.
Hsieh said, as the number of buyers targeting large-sized units for home replacements in Taipei grew in April, so more expensive housing units were favored in the city.
In New Taipei in northern Taiwan, sales of residential and commercial property hit 4,777 units in April, up 22.2 percent from a year earlier and also up 3.6 percent from a month earlier, while Taoyuan, also in the north, reported transactions of 3,057 units, up 27.3 percent from a year earlier and up 13.6 percent from a month earlier.
In Taichung, central Taiwan, transactions of homes, shops and offices rose 19.1 percent from a year earlier and grew 2.4 percent from a month earlier to 3,298 units.
In the first four months of this year, residential and commercial property sales in the six cities grew 7.6 percent from a year earlier at 69,105 units.
Despite the strong showing in April, Hsieh warned that the local property market expects more uncertainty before an agreement is signed by Washington and Beijing to resolve their trade disputes.
In addition, the presidential election scheduled for Jan. 11, 2020 could also create negative non-economic factors that dampen sentiment in the local property market, Hsieh said.
(By Jeffrey Wu and Frances Huang)
Enditem/AW