Shanghai's new housing market halts 3-week slump

A three-week slump in Shanghai's new housing market has ended after robust sales of medium and high-end homes last week, according to latest market data.

The area of new homes sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 25.5 percent to 118,500 square meters during the seven-day period ending on Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released today.

The city's remote Qingpu District again led with new home sales of 22,500 square meters, a surge of 70.5 percent from the previous week. Remaining in second place was outlying Jiading District where new home sales jumped 61.3 percent to 17,900 square meters.

The average cost of a new home rose 16.8 percent from a week earlier to 57,021 yuan (US$8,913) per square meter amid a structural shift, according to Centaline data.

Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline, however, said that "not a single project managed to sell more than 100 units during the seven-day period, indicating that momentum among home buyers was still kind of weak."

A residential development in Songjiang District, which sold 7,706 square meters, or 78 apartments, for an average price of 42,952 yuan per square meter, became the most sought-after project last week. It was followed by a housing development in Jiading where weekly sales of 5,835 square meters, or 65 units, at an average 30,280 yuan per square meter were recorded.

New home supply also rebounded last week, according to Centaline data. Some 41,700 square meters of new villas were released locally, a week-over-week surge of 83.1 percent.

"The fact that weekly supply stayed below the 100,000-square-meter threshold for the second consecutive week might hinder a major recovery in sales over the coming weeks," Lu added.