House sales fall, prices up in holidays

NEW housing sales in Shanghai retreated during the weeklong National Day holiday, but the better performing high-end segment helped push average prices up to another record, the latest industry data shows.

Across the city, about 56,000 square meters of new residential property, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, were sold during the seven days to Sunday, a week-over-week drop of 68.8 percent, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report yesterday.

But that compared to about 22,000 square meters during last year’s National Day holiday.

The Pudong New Area, where about 25,000 square meters of new homes were sold, mainly fuelled by good supply released in previous weeks, emerged as the only area that saw weekly sales pass the 10,000-squaremeter threshold. It was closely trailed by the outlying districts of Qingpu and Fengxian, although neither passed 9,000 square meters.

“Not a single unit of new homes was launched onto the local market last week and media reports on price cuts by some developers to boost sales at their residential projects were also heard,” said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline. “That will probably create a ripple effect and we therefore expect to see more such campaigns as developers face ever mounting capital pressure.”

The average cost of a new home rebounded sharply to 69,731 yuan (US$10,106) per square meter, a week-on-week surge of 29.2 percent.

Three of the top 10 most sought-after projects cost more than 100,000 yuan per square meter, recording sales of 20, 10 and 12 units.

Notably, two residential developments in Pudong’s Qiantan area, both with a price tag of more than 80,000 yuan per square meter, managed to grab the top two spots on last week’s list after selling 9,896 square meters and 8,010 square meters, respectively, during the holiday.