Commercial property transactions in Taiwan in the second quarter of this year rose 21 percent from a year earlier due largely to high liquidity in the market, a property consulting firm DTZ said Wednesday. In the period April to June, commercial property transactions amounted to NT$30.3 (US$941 million) , pushing the figure for the first half of the year to NT$48.8 billion, DTZ said. 'Taiwan is awash with funds as more and more overseas Taiwanese investors are returning to the country and cross strait relations continue to improve, ' said Wendy Hsueh, head of DTZ's consulting and research division. 'Property, in particular commercial property, has been their main investment priority,' Hsueh told the Central News Agency. She said the double digit increase in transaction value in the past three months also reflected a low comparison base in the second quarter of last year, when Taiwan's economy was hard hit by the global financial meltdown. According to the consulting firm, commercial property prices so far this year have risen 10-20 percent year-on-year, a significant increase that has attracted investors. With Taiwan's signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement with China in June, local commercial property transactions will continue to grow, Hsueh said. In the second quarter, the largest commercial property transaction was the auction of the Wind Dance Shopping Center in downtown Hsinchu City valued at NT$5.89 billion, while the sale of an office building in Taipei City's Neihu District was the second biggest at NT$4.71 billion. DTZ said although the central bank raised its key discount rate by 0.125 percentage points in late June in an attempt to hold down property prices, market liquidity has remained high, prompting investors to continue buying commercial property. Noting that the government has suspended the sale of large tracts of state-owned land in commercial zones, DTZ said the reduced supply is expected to further boost property prices. With land in downtown Taipei becoming scarce, investors had better set their sight on areas on the outskirts of the city, such as Hsinchuang, DTZ suggested. 