Shanghai housing market rebounds in latest week

Weekly new home sales in Shanghai have exceeded the 200,000-square-meter mark, mainly fuelled by robust turnover in Minhang District, the latest market data showed.

The total area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, jumped 47.6 percent week over week to 247,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, the first major rebound in three weeks, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a regular report issued on Monday.

Minhang witnessed extremely strong sentiment, with weekly sales totaling 82,000 square meters. It was trailed by Qingpu District, where some 28,000 square meters of new houses were sold. Suburban Fengxian District and the Nanhui region of the Pudong New Area also performed strongly, both selling over 17,000 square meters of new properties.

"Minhang alone accounted for one third of the city's total transactions," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior researcher. "Moreover, two projects unloaded over 280 units each, indicating a strong recovery of momentum among home buyers."

The average new home price, meanwhile, edged up 2.2 percent week over week to 56,984 yuan (US$8,222) per square meter. Luxury projects remained absent in the top-10 list and medium- to low-end projects continued to be the most sought-after category.

Dwarfing all last week was a residential development in Minhang's Huacao area, which sold 32,454 square meters, or 288 units, for an average price of 64,393 yuan per square meter. A project in Pujiang Town in the same district, with a price tag of 61,534 yuan per square meter on average, followed with weekly sales of 26,221 square meters, or 285 units.

Two projects costing between 80,000 yuan and 84,000 yuan per square meter entered the list of top-10 projects, while the remaining six all sold for less than 45,000 yuan per square meter, according to Centaline data.

On the supply side, about 224,000 square meters of new housing spanning nine projects were released into the local market last week, an increase of 15.5 percent from the previous seven-day period.

"The majority of new supply launched recently cost around 50,000 yuan per square meter, and that would probably help boost sales in the next couple of weeks," Lu said. "Performance should be strong in September, very likely exceeding that of the same period last year."