Taipei, Sept. 16 (CNA) The median age of homes in Taoyuan is lower than in any of Taiwan's five other major metropolitan areas, Ministry of the Interior (MOI) data has showed.

The median age of residential property in Taoyuan was 22.39 years as of the end of June, the lowest among the six special municipalities.

It was followed by 24.06 years in Taichung, 25.57 years in New Taipei, 28.11 years in Tainan, 28.5 years in Kaohsiung and 34.52 years in Taipei, according to the data, which was released on Saturday.

Taoyuan also had the highest proportion of young homes, with the number of 10-year-old houses accounting for 16.74 percent of the city's residential housing as of the end of June, beating Taichung's 13.08 percent, New Taipei's 13.41 percent, Tainan's 9.95 percent, Kaohsiung's 9.77 percent and Taipei's 9.36 percent.

The older nature of Taipei's homes was also reflected by residential units aged 30 or younger accounting for only 33.06 percent of all residential property in the city.

That compared with 68.15 percent in Taoyuan, 64.55 percent in Taichung, 56.98 percent in New Taipei, 53.53 percent in Tainan and 52.56 percent in Kaohsiung, the MOI data showed.

Nationwide, outlying Kinmen County had the youngest residential property of any of the 22 counties and cities in the country, with a median age of 20.97 years, the MOI said.

Kinmen was among the eight counties and cities with a median residential property age below the national average of 27.9 years. The other seven included Hsinchu County's 21.95 years and Hsinchu City's 22.70 years, the MOI data showed.

The outlying Lienchiang County had the highest median residential property age of 38.39 years, followed by Penghu County at 35.43 years and Chiayi County at 34.55 years.

Meanwhile, as of the end of June, there were 8.54 million residential units around the country on which owners paid house taxes, up 1.1 percent from a year earlier, the MOI said.

A total of 1.57 million units were in New Taipei, the most populous city in the country, accounting for about 18.41 percent of the country's total and the highest ratio nationwide, followed by Kaohsiung's 12.21 percent and Taichung's 11.79 percent, the MOI said.