Taiwan's August Home Transfers Hit a '10-Year Low,' Down Just 5.6%
Taiwan's six largest cities registered 15,723 building sale transfers in August 2026, which several outlets called the lowest August in about ten years. The count was only 5.6 percent below August 2025, which had already fallen 32.1 percent, and the eight-month total is down just 1.5 percent. The low is the level 2025 left behind.
本文另有中文版：「十年同期新低」的六都 8 月買賣移轉，年減卻只有 5.6%：去年 8 月已先少了三成
On September 1, land offices in Taiwan’s six largest cities (the six special municipalities) reported 15,723 registered building sale transfers for August. That is 23.3 percent fewer than July and 5.6 percent fewer than August 2025. Several Taiwanese outlets, including Commercial Times, Economic Daily News and Liberty Times, described it as the lowest August in about ten years.
Both numbers are correct, and they describe the same month.
The gap between them opened a year earlier. August 2025 had already fallen by almost a third, and 2026 has stayed close to that level.
August 2025 was already 32.1 percent below 2024, and 2026 has stayed near that level
Commercial Times reported on September 1, 2025 that the six cities registered about 16,700 building sale transfers in August 2025, down 32.1 percent from August 2024. Every city fell, by between 25.1 percent in Taichung and 37.4 percent in Tainan. January through August 2025 came to 135,721 transfers, down 27.6 percent. Yongqing Realty’s Chen Chin-ping called it the coldest first eight months in eight years.
| Six-city building sale transfers | August | August vs. prior year | Jan–Aug | Jan–Aug vs. prior year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | about 16,700 | −32.1% | 135,721 | −27.6% |
| 2026 | 15,723 | −5.6% | 133,667 | −1.5% |
Sources: Commercial Times (2025 row); six-city land offices, as reported by Anue and Commercial Times (2026 row).
Against that base, 2026 has moved very little. The eight-month total is 2,054 transfers short of last year’s. CTBC Realty’s Zhuang Szu-min said the cumulative figures show only a slight decline and that the market is still consolidating.
August is where the level and the rate part ways. Anue reports that it was the third-lowest month of 2026, above only February, which holds the Lunar New Year, and April. The level is low, but the change from an already weak 2025 is small.
Industry sources point to a July rush, a folk-custom month and fewer working days
The drop from July was steep, at 23.3 percent. Three firms offered explanations, and each is that firm’s own reading.
Taiwan Housing’s Chen Ding-chung tied it to a rule change. The government’s subsidized first-time-buyer loan program (青安) moved to version 3.0 in August, and the new terms exclude wealthier households, older buyers and high-priced homes. Some affected buyers, he said, rushed to close under version 2.0 before the end of July. In his account, that lifted July and raised the comparison base for August.
Yongqing’s Chen Chin-ping pointed to timing. Deals and registrations sit about a month apart, so the August count mostly reflects July and early August. The lunar seventh month is a traditional folk month in which some buyers avoid handovers and registration. A typhoon also closed offices and schools in several localities. Chen Chin-ping said both moved handover dates on new-build projects.
Sinyi Realty’s Tseng Ching-te listed the stock market and the calendar. Taiwan’s stock index fell from 47,000 to briefly below 40,000 in July, which is traditionally a slow month for housing. August also had fewer working days for land offices to process transfers.
These are industry readings, not measured effects, and most of them describe a single month. The eight-month total is the better guide to the year.
Kaohsiung and Taipei are up this year; Taichung is down 9.8 percent
The six cities do not make one market. Through August, three are ahead of last year and three are behind.
| City | Jan–Aug 2026 | vs. 2025 | August 2026 | vs. Aug 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taipei | 16,092 | +3.7% | 1,752 | +2.8% |
| New Taipei | 31,554 | +1.0% | 3,619 | −4.2% |
| Taoyuan | 25,517 | −5.8% | 3,126 | −5.0% |
| Taichung | 24,958 | −9.8% | 3,260 | −12.9% |
| Tainan | 12,985 | −0.9% | 1,319 | −16.1% |
| Kaohsiung | 22,561 | +6.9% | 2,647 | +2.8% |
| Six cities | 133,667 | −1.5% | 15,723 | −5.6% |
Source: six-city land offices, as reported by Commercial Times, Anue and Liberty Times.
The split was wider in August alone. Tainan and Taichung each fell by more than 10 percent. Taipei and Kaohsiung still rose. Taiwan Housing said, as reported by Economic Daily News, that Tainan’s 1,319 transfers made its lowest August in about 14 years, with annual and monthly declines that were the largest of the six.
The six-city figure of −1.5 percent is a blend of cities moving in opposite directions. It describes none of them on its own.
591 counts NT$545.2 billion in late-September launches, back to the level of 2019 to 2021
591, a Taiwanese property platform, publishes new-build statistics on the late-September pre-sale season, known locally as the 928 window. As reported by Commercial Times on September 7, 591 counts 246 projects in this year’s window, down 21.2 percent. Total sales value came to NT$545.2 billion, down 23.3 percent from last year. August transfers also fell 23.3 percent, but that drop is measured against July, and the match is a coincidence.
591 says this year’s value is the lowest for the window in almost six years, since 2021. The coverage gives no figures for 2022 and 2023.
| 928 window, nationwide | Total sales value (NT$ billion) |
|---|---|
| 2019 to 2021 | annual average: NT$500 billion-plus |
| 2024 | more than 970 (a record, per 591) |
| 2025 | more than 710 |
| 2026 | 545.2 |
Source: 591 new-build statistics, as reported by Commercial Times.
The 2024 figure was a record, so the useful comparison is with 2019 to 2021. This year’s NT$545.2 billion sits in the same range as that average of more than NT$500 billion, and 591 calls it a return to the level of six years ago.
Among the seven cities 591 compares, the six plus Hsinchu, only Hsinchu and Taipei rose. Hsinchu’s total passed NT$60 billion, up 220 percent, and Commercial Times cites a roughly NT$10 billion project in the city’s East District (達麗吾同) among the launches. Taipei reached nearly NT$150 billion, carried by the Nangang Star project at NT$65 billion. Without that project, 591 says, Taipei’s launches still shrank.
New Taipei and Taoyuan each launched more than NT$100 billion, but each fell by more than 30 percent from last year. Central and southern cities saw steep declines. In Kaohsiung, 591 says, the launch zones moved from Nanzi and Zuoying toward Fengshan.
591’s reading is that developers are delaying launches, slowing down to watch demand and shifting their attention to selling homes that are already built.
On September 17 the central bank lifted the second-home loan ceiling to 70 percent and dropped a land-loan pledge
The central bank’s statement, issued after its board meeting, sets two changes effective September 18. The first raises the ceiling on second-home mortgages for individuals from 60 percent to 70 percent. The bank had already raised that ceiling from 50 percent to 60 percent, effective March 20. The second drops the requirement that land-purchase borrowers pledge to start building within a set period.
| Item | Before September 18 | From September 18 |
|---|---|---|
| Second-home mortgage ceiling, individuals | 60% (50% before March 20) | 70% |
| Land-purchase loans | 50%, with 10% held back for construction; concrete building plan and pledge to start building within a set period | Same, without the pledge |
Source: central bank press release, September 17, 2026.
The land-loan change touches the terms on which developers borrow to buy land. A concrete building plan is still required, and the bank says the rule should return to banks’ own lending practice.
The 30 percent ceilings for company purchases of homes, individuals’ purchases of high-priced homes, third homes and beyond, and loans on unsold homes (餘屋貸款) all remained unchanged. First-home loans still carry no grace period. The rediscount rate stayed at 2 percent. The same statement notes that short- and long-term market interest rates have risen in recent months.
The bank’s stated reason is that its selective credit controls are continuing to show results. It says housing transactions keep cooling, speculation has fallen and expectations of rising prices have eased. It also cites the share of real estate loans in all bank lending. That ratio stood at 37.61 percent at the end of June 2024, 35.56 percent at the end of March 2026 and 34.44 percent at the end of July 2026, which is 3.17 percentage points below the 2024 level.
The statement does not cite the August transfer counts or 591’s launch figures.
The ten-year low is the level 2025 left, and 2026, through August, has not repeated that fall
Six-city transfers fell once, in 2025: down 32.1 percent in August and 27.6 percent over the first eight months. Through August 2026 they are down only another 1.5 percent, and Taipei, New Taipei and Kaohsiung are ahead of last year. August’s level is low. The larger part of the drop to that level came from 2025’s 32.1 percent, not this year’s 5.6 percent.
A reader who disagrees has two numbers to point to. Taichung’s eight-month total is down 9.8 percent, so not every city has leveled off. And 591’s late-September launch value fell 23.3 percent, though that counts projects developers opened for sale, not registered transfers.
On registered transfers alone, 2026 through August is a market holding at a low level. It is not a second fall.
Scope and versions
- “Ten-year low” comes from headlines in Commercial Times, Economic Daily News and Liberty Times, each worded differently. This article compares 2025 and 2026 only.
- The explanations for the August drop are each firm’s own reading. Agents also give differing reasons for the split between cities, and this article does not judge the cause.
- The 928-window figures come from 591’s new-build statistics alone.
- Transfers, launches and loan ceilings count different things, at different points in time. A transfer count records a registered change of ownership in a building sale, and industry sources say handover schedules on new builds affect it. A launch is a developer’s decision to open a project for sale. A loan ceiling limits what a bank may lend. This article does not convert one into another or compare how fast they fall.
- The central bank’s changes came about two weeks after the August figures were released. Its statement does not connect the two, and this article gives only the order of events.
- What would overturn the reading that 2026, through August, has not repeated 2025’s fall: a clearly wider cumulative decline in the coming months. The next figure is the September transfer count. If the schedule follows August’s, which was published on September 1, it should arrive around early October. The new ceiling took effect on September 18, so September holds only about two weeks under it. Yongqing’s Chen Chin-ping says registrations trail deals by roughly a month, which puts any effect of the new ceiling later still.
Sources
- Central bank of Taiwan, board meeting press releases (115) No. 149 (September 17, 2026) and (115) No. 051 (March 19, 2026).
- Commercial Times: six-city transfer reports of September 1, 2025 and September 1, 2026; 591 928-window report of September 7, 2026.
- Anue (Cnyes): six-city transfer report, September 1, 2026; 928-window report.
- Economic Daily News and Liberty Times: six-city transfer reports, September 2026.
This article summarizes published statistics, press releases and news reports, with forecasts labeled apart from reported figures. It is not investment advice.