Small apartments make up large part of new homes sold in first half

More than 20,000 new housing units were sold around the city in the first half of this year, with apartments smaller than 100 square meters accounting for over half, according to the latest industry research.

Between January and June, sales of new residential units, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, totaled around 22,000 in Shanghai, Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co said in a report. That compared with 27,000 units sold in the first half of 2017 and 21,500 units transacted during the other half of last year.

"Despite a notable rebound in new home supply, new home sales only recorded very limited growth from the previous six-month period," Homelink said. "That was both due to inadequate supply in the second half of 2017 and a generally placid mood in the market so far this year."

During the first six months, about 20,900 square meters of new homes were released into the local market, compared with 10,300 square meters launched in the second half of 2017 and 24,700 square meters introduced during the second half of last year, according to Homelink data.

In terms of size, new homes sold in the first half averaged 118.9 square meters, the smallest since 2015. About 52.6 percent of the new housing units sold during the period were smaller than 100 square meters, up from the 45.4 percent share registered in the second half of last year.

About 5,100 of the total 22,000 units sold in the first half were located within the city's Outer Ring Road, exceeding last year's total which stood at around 4,900 units, Homelink data showed.

A Greenland project in outlying Qingpu District emerged as the most popular development after selling 99,000 square meters, or 1,001 apartments, for an average unit price of 2.94 million yuan (US$442,397) during the six-month period. It was most closely trailed by a Tahoe project in Changxing Island, Chongming District, which offloaded 88,600 square meters, or 849 units, for an average price of 3.01 million yuan per unit.