Shanghai's new home sales rose to the highest in four months last week while the average price was little changed.
Sales of new homes, excluding those built under the city's affordable housing programs, jumped more than 27 percent to 238,500 square meters during the seven-day period ended Sunday, Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co said yesterday. The average price dipped 0.02 percent from a week earlier to 21,617 yuan (US$3,326) per square meter, Uwin data showed.
"It was the first time since February that the weekly transaction of new homes in the city climbed above the 200,000-square-meter threshold," said Song Huiyong, research director with Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Ltd. "A Poly Real Estate development in Gucun, Baoshan District, registered extremely good sales of nearly 44,000 square meters, which helped boost the city's overall volume significantly."
A total of 367 units at the Poly project were sold last week for an average price of 19,025 yuan per square meter. Another development, also sited in Baoshan, sold 153 units to rank as the second best-selling residential project during the same period, according to Uwin data.
On the supply side, 126,500 square meters of new houses were released locally last week, a sharp fall of 77 percent from a week earlier.
The local new residential market has been picking up gradually since March after reaching its bottom in February which was due to the dual effects of tightening measures by the government and the traditional slack season for home sales during the Spring Festival period.
New home sales reached 414,000 square meters in March, 640,000 square meters in April and 831,000 square meters in May, a consecutive three months of rebound from 178,000 square meters in February, the lowest since 2006.
"While demand will be curbed by the home-purchase ban, the firm prices would keep many potential buyers away," said Sky Xue, an analyst at China Real Estate Information Corp. "No major breakthrough should be expected any time soon."
