Shanghai's pre-used home market drops for fourth straight month

Existing house index continues to fall

Weakness extended in the city's pre-used home market for another month as continuously shrinking transactions failed to cushion against price withdrawals.

Shanghai's existing housing index, which tracks month-over-month price changes in 130 areas around the city, fell 0.19 percent from June to 3,996 last month, Shanghai Existing House Index Office said in a report released today.

The average cost of non-new homes rose in 60 areas fell in 53 areas and remained flat in the remaining 17 areas.

"The index fell for the second month despite an insignificantly slower pace as sales of existing houses retreated for the fourth straight month," the office said. "By proximity to the city center, homes in outlying areas suffered larger setbacks in price than their downtown counterparts and that did help them with comparatively better performance in sales."

Around the city, Sanlin in Pudong New Area stood out as the best-performing area in terms of sales with monthly transactions surging 70 percent from June to 315 units. That was closely trailed by Jinshan New City, where 310 units of existing homes changed hands last month.

In terms of inventory, some 166,861 units of pre-used homes were available on the local market for sale by the end of July, a decrease of 1.56 percent from a month earlier, according to data compiled by the office.

Sales of existing homes dropped for the fourth consecutive month in Shanghai in July to some 11,700 units, a month-over-month decline of 4.2 percent and a year-on-year plunge of 65.3 percent, Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co said in a report released earlier.