New home sales surge amid rebound in new supply

New home sales in Shanghai surpassed the 200,000-square-meter mark last week amid soaring new supply, with medium to low-end properties being extremely popular among buyers.

The total area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-funded affordable housing, rose 15.3 percent week over week to 212,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a regular report issued on Monday.

Jiading District, Nanhui (formerly a district and now part of the Pudong New Area) and Qingpu District led with weekly sales of 29,000 square meters, 27,000 square meters and 22,000 square meters, respectively.

"Outlying districts in general registered much more robust performance compared with their downtown counterparts, which therefore led to a double-digit retreat in average price from the previous week," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior researcher. "Hopefully, such strong momentum will extend and we may see the transaction volume reach 300,000 square meters perhaps very soon."

The average new home price stood at 51,068 yuan (US$7,610) per square meter, a week-over-week drop of 12.1 percent, according to Centaline data.

A development in Chongming District dwarfed all others after selling 11,408 square meters, or 112 apartments, for an average price of 30,460 yuan per square meter. It was immediately followed by a project in Nanhui which unloaded 9,243 square meters, or 119 units of new homes, at an average price of 23,511 yuan per square meter.

Among the top 10 projects by sales, eight cost less than 50,000 yuan per square meter, including six selling for less than 38,000 yuan per square meter.

On the supply side, meanwhile, a significant rebound was recorded after two sluggish weeks partly due to the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays. About 441,000 square meters of new houses were launched into the local market last week, compared with some 15,000 square meters released during the previous seven-day period, according to Centaline data.