Shanghai new home sales down 45 percent in latest week

Shanghai's new housing market lost steam in the first week of June amid an absence of new supply, the latest market data showed.

The total area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, plunged 45.3 percent week over week to around 143,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a regular report released on Monday.

Around the city, the Nanhui region of the Pudong New Area, which ranked third in the previous week, was the only area registering sales of more than 20,000 square meters. Five other remote districts, including Qingpu and Songjiang, managed to stay above the 10,000-square-meter mark.

The average price of new homes, meanwhile, fell 2.9 percent week over week to 57,331 yuan (US$8,075) per square meter.

"As new supply fell for the third consecutive week, it was quite an expected retreat," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior researcher. "However, the weakness might not last very long as real estate developers are supposed to gear up for their half-year reports soon."

Citywide, a project in Nanhui with an average price of 60,491 yuan per square meter outperformed all after selling 3,522 square meters, or 44 units, during the seven-day period. A development in outlying Qinpu District followed closely after unloading 3,201 square meters, or 21 apartments, for an average price of 73,050 yuan per square meter.

In the top 10 list by sales volume, only one project ranked above the 100,000-yuan-per-square-meter mark and five cost less than 50,000 yuan per square meter.

Not a single new home unit was released into the local market last week, compared with some 115,000 square meters introduced during the previous seven-day period, according to Centaline data.