New home sales continue upward trend

SHANGHAI’S new home market extended its strength for another week, despite a fall in supply.

The total area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 5.3 percent week over week to around 282,000 square meters during the seven days to Sunday.

That was the fifth consecutive weekly gain, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in its weekly report released yesterday.

The Pudong New Area outperformed all areas with transactions hitting 77,000 square meters.

Qingpu District, in the city’s west, followed with sales doubling to 32,000 square meters.

“The recent rebound in new supply helped bolster buyers’ sentiment, with five projects managing to register more than 100 units each in sales over the past week which was very rare,” said Lu Wenxi, Centaline’s senior researcher.

“And transactions should remain above the 200,000square-meter mark at least for another week. As long as supply remains solid and stable.”

Average prices rose to a historic high mainly due to a structural shift. New homes cost 70,793 yuan (US$9,986) per square meter on average, an increase of 4.2 percent from the previous week, Centaline said.

Dwarfing all in the bestseller list was a project in Biyun, Pudong, where 35,326 square meters, or 130 apartments, were sold for an average price of 109,759 yuan per square meter.

A China Vanke development in western Qingpu District ranked No. 2 after selling 22,164 square meters, or 186 apartments, at an average 57,888 yuan per square meter.

Three of the 10 bestselling projects cost more than 100,000 yuan per square meter.

Two others sold at between 80,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan per square meter.

A total of 157,000 square meters of new homes tailored to customers with various budgets were released into the local market.

That was a 36.8 percent drop from the previous seven days.

But it was still close to normal levels, Centaline said.