Lack of new properties plagues housing market

Zero new supply continued to plague Shanghai’s new housing market for the third consecutive week while sentiment among home buyers remained sluggish despite a slight rebound in sales.

The area of new homes sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 3.9 percent to 91,000 square meters in the seven days ended Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report yesterday.

Outlying Jiading District regained its top position after weekly sales surged 61.5 percent to 21,000 square meters. The more remote Qingpu District closely trailed with transactions of 17,000 square meters, up 13.3 percent from the previous week.

“It was extremely rare that not a single unit of new homes has been released into the local market for three straight weeks,” said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline.

“No doubt, that would impact new home sales over the coming weeks and August may therefore very likely conclude with record low sales compared to same period in previous years.”

New homes sold for an average of 46,075 yuan (US$5,855) per square meter, a week-over-week drop of 10.1 percent, Centaline data showed.

Citywide, units in seven of the 10 most popular projects cost no more than 50,000 yuan per square meter and there were only two developments where the price was under 30,000 yuan per square meter.

A housing development in Jiading became the most sought-after project after selling 6,839 square meters, or 71 units, for an average price of 30,115 yuan per square meter.

A project in Nanhui, Pudong New Area, asking for 21,172 yuan per square meter was second after selling 3,745 square meters, or 25 new homes.

New home sales in Shanghai totaled 262,500 square meters during the first 20 days of August, below the volume seen in the same period of January, said a report yesterday by Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co.