New home sales hit new high

New home sales in Shanghai rose to the highest in 12 weeks, with medium to low-end properties being the most popular among home seekers, latest market data showed.

The area of new homes sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, climbed 2.1 percent to 126,000 square meters during the seven-day period ended on Sunday, staying above the 100,000-square-meter threshold for the second consecutive week, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released yesterday.

“Areas with comparatively abundant supply in previous weeks began to register notable momentum,” said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Shanghai Centaline.

Lu added that projects which offered attractive prices posted strong sales.

The outlying Baoshan and Qingpu districts led last week with sales of new homes hitting 30,000 square meters and 24,000 square meters, respectively. These figures represented a week-on-week jump of 100 percent and 33 percent.

The average cost of new houses edged up 1.1 percent to 48,202 yuan (US$7,331) per square meter, according to Centaline data. Eight of the 10 most sought-after projects cost no more than 50,000 yuan per square meter.

A residential project in Baoshan emerged as the best-selling development after selling 22,766 square meters, or 201 units, for an average 53,899 yuan per square meter — below the price of its earlier batch.

However, only 304 square meters of new homes, or equivalent to two apartments, were released in the city, a week-on-week plunge of 99.6 percent, according to Centaline data.