Shanghai home market carries rally into third week

New home sales in Shanghai rose as expected in the last week of June, despite a modest retreat in new supply, the latest market data showed.

The total area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, jumped 18.1 percent week over week to around 214,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, extending a rally for the third consecutive week, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a regular report released on Monday.

"Remote areas posted strong performances in general with Qingpu District, the Nanhui region of the Pudong New Area and Baoshan District outperforming all by staying above the 20,000-square-meter mark," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior researcher. "Notably, the Dragon Boat Festival witnessed extremely robust sales, far surpassing earlier expectations."

During the three-day holiday ending Saturday, nearly 100,000 square meters of new home space were unloaded across the city, a year-on-year surge of 170 percent, according to Centaline data.

The average price of new homes, meanwhile, dipped 1.1 percent week over week to 54,327 yuan (US$7,659) per square meter.

A project in Pudong emerged as the most popular after selling 7,361 square meters, or 61 units, for an average price of 51,579 yuan per square meter during the seven-day period. A development in Baoshan followed closely after unloading 5,881 square meters, or 62 apartments, for an average price of around 44,000 yuan per square meter.

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

On the supply side, about 204,000 square meters of new homes spanning seven projects were released into the local market last week, a decrease of 7.8 percent from the previous seven-day period, according to Centaline data.