The National Property Administration (NPA) defended its sales of small plots of public land Friday after a land parcel in Taipei City fetched a near record price in an open tender a day earlier and fueled worries of a possible property bubble. 'It would be a waste of resources if we failed to auction off small-size public plots for private use when the market has strong demand,' the bureau said in a statement. Stressing that selling small plots of land through a market mechanism is a normal strategy to spur and sustain economic development, the statement said the bureau has consistently followed the principle of selling only public plots of less than 500 pings, or 1,650 square meters. In a public auction Thursday, a 121-ping piece of public land on Jianguo S. Road in Taipei City was sold for NT$731 million (US$22.84 million) . The unit price of NT$6.03 million per ping was the second highest unit price for residential land ever recorded in Taiwan. The sale followed the auction of two other plots in the city in January, which also were sold for high prices. The deals have fed criticism that the NPA is fanning property speculation and driving housing prices in urban areas, particularly Taipei City and Taipei County, to levels that are unaffordable for most local families. The bureau rejected the allegations, arguing that public land sales accounted for only a negligible share of the domestic real estate market. Citing 2009 sales, the NPA said the 13.85 hectares of public land it auctioned off last year for NT$10.8 billion accounted for only 0.04 percent of all the land sold in Taiwan and 0.68 percent of the total transaction value. 'Given such marginal numbers, public land sales were unlikely to affect normal property market prices,' the statement contended. Noting that the few public lots that fetched record-setting prices were all located in Taipei City, the statement said the phenomenon mainly reflected the decreasing amount of prime land available in a city that is the leading indicator of economic development in the country. 