Upswing continues in Shanghai home market

Shanghai's new home sales market continued to gain momentum last week with the average price citywide reaching above the 50,000 yuan-per-square-meter (US$7,097) threshold again.

The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-funded affordable housing, rose 20.2 percent to around 206,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in its regular weekly report, released on Monday.

Across the city, Qingpu District outperformed all with transactions totalling 48,000 square meters. It was most closely trailed by Pudong New Area, where some 33,000 square meters of new houses were sold.

"Rather abundant new supply over the past few weeks, coupled with the month-end effect, contributed to last week's strong performance, with three projects posting transactions of more than 100 units," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior research manager. "On the price side, medium to high-end developments were the most popular among home buyers, pushing the average cost in excess of 50,000 yuan-per-square-meter again."

The average price of a new home jumped 9.8 percent from a week earlier to 52,457 yuan per square meter amid a structural shift, rebounding from the year-to-date low registered in the previous week, Centaline data showed.

In the top 10 projects by sales, seven cost more than 50,000 yuan per square meter, including four above 80,000 yuan per square meter. One project in Pudong with a price tag of 43,281 yuan per square meter dwarfed all others after selling 15,954 square meters, or 149 units. It was immediately followed by two developments in Qingpu, which unloaded 15,343 square meters, or 158 units, and 13,375 square meters, or 141 units, respectively; both at prices of more than 57,000 yuan per square meter.

One luxury project, located in Pudong with a price tag of over 120,000 yuan per square meter, ranked No.8 after selling 3,217 square meters, or 18 units, during the seven-day period.

New home supply, meanwhile, remained above 200,000 square meters despite a moderate retreat. A total of 214,000 square meters of new homes, spanning six projects, were introduced across the city, a week-over-week dip of 2.1 percent, according to Centaline data.