No new homes come onto market in week
No new homes went on sale last week in Shanghai while seven-day transactions managed to stay above the 100,000-square-meter threshold despite a double-digit retreat.
The area of new homes sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, fell 26.8 percent to 110,200 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released on Monday.
Nanhui in Pudong New Area, where weekly sales tumbled 30.6 percent from a week earlier to 16,800 square meters, was again topped for the second week. Jiading District was the second most popular area after transacting 15,000 square meters, a week-on-week gain of 28.4 percent.
The average cost of a new home fell 4.1 percent from a week ago to 51,279 yuan (US$7,989) per square meter, according to Centaline data.
"While medium to high-end projects continued to sell steadily with four out of the 10 best-selling projects costing over 60,000 yuan per square meter, medium to low-end developments remained the most sought-after developments among home buyers," said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline. "However, not a single residential project managed to record weekly sales of above 100 units, indicating lackluster buying momentum in general."
A China Vanke project in Lingang of Pudong New Area led with weekly sales of 7,487 square meters, or 90 units, for an average 28,698 yuan per square meter. A development in Jiading with each unit costing 30,481 yuan per square meter on average closely followed with weekly sales of 6,152 square meters, or 70 units.
The city, however, saw not a single unit of new home released last week.
"The last time that Shanghai encountered zero new supply was about 11 weeks ago," Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co said in a separate report released on Monday. "Its impact on the local new housing market might be rather limited, however, since buyers still have sufficient options amid abundant new homes released earlier in April and May."