New home sales in city plummet while average price rebounds

Shanghai's new home sales market suffered a major retreat last week while average prices rebounded notably with a return of luxury products to the best-selling list.

The total area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, plunged 21.7 percent week over week to 145,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending yesterday, according to Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants in a report issued today.

However, the average price of new homes rose 19.3 percent week over week to 56,395 yuan (US$8,610) per square meter, with three projects priced around or above the 100,000-yuan-per-square-meter mark getting into the top 10 list.

"It was the lowest weekly volume registered in the second half of 2020, with only six districts/areas seeing sales above the 10,000-square-meter threshold, compared with eight or nine in previous weeks," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior researcher. "However, new home supply finally recovered, giving hopes that sales will pick up this month."

Some 134,000 square meters of new housing spanning five projects came online in the local market last week, a notable recovery of sentiment among real estate developers who had been sitting on the sidelines for two consecutive weeks, according to Centaline data.

Citywide, three remote districts — Qingpu, Fengxian and Jiading — led the pack with weekly sales of 21,000 square meters, 16,000 square meters and 15,000 square meters respectively.

A project in Qingpu emerged as the most popular development after unloading 5,452 square meters, or 54 units, at an average price of 60,899 yuan (US$9314) per square meter.

Among top developments by sales, four were priced at more than 80,000 yuan per square meter, including two standing above the 100,000-yuan-per-square-meter mark, according to Centaline data.