New home weekly sales jump 18 percent as supply rises

SHANGHAI'S new home sales maintained double-digit growth last week amid a major rebound in new supply, weekly market data released on Monday shows.

Weekly sales of new residential properties, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 18.3 percent to 99,000 square meters during the seven days  to Sunday.

And sales remained below the 100,000-square-meter benchmark for the eighth consecutive week, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in its weekly assessment.

"Boosted by a notable increase in supply, outlying Songjiang District outperformed all of its counterparts with new home transactions doubling to 16,000 square meters last week," said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline.

"Qingpu, where sales jumped 25 percent from the previous week, grabbed the second (hottest) spot."

Some central areas, such as Jing'an, saw no transactions because of the lack of supply.

Across the city, about 50,000 square meters of new residential properties spanning three projects — two in Songjiang and one in Baoshan — were released onto the market last week, the first time in nine weeks that new supply exceeded 10,000 square meters.

New homes sold for an average 49,054 yuan (US$7,430) per square meter, a week on week increase of 1.1 percent.

"For four straight weeks, the average cost of new homes fluctuated within a three percentage point range, more evidence that the local new home market has become somewhat stuck," Lu said.

Songjiang's Evergrande project sold 7,288 square meters, or 39 units, for an average 34,961 yuan a square meter, making it the most popular development of the week.

By price, six of the 10 best-selling projects cost 30,000-40,000 yuan per square meter. The most expensive project sold for  about 80,000 yuan a square meter, Centaline said.