Weekly new home sales highest of the year

Weekly sales of new homes rose to the highest level this year in Shanghai amid continuously recovering supply, the latest market data showed.

The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, gained 5.4 percent to 207,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released today.

"New home sales exceeded the 200,000-square-meter threshold for the first time this year, mainly boosted by abundant new supply released over the past three weeks across all segments," said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline. "Hopefully, the strong momentum among both real estate developers and home buyers would extend through August."

Citywide, the remote Jiading District, despite a retreat of 36.9 percent from the previous week, maintained its top position, with weekly sales of some 41,000 square meters. Songjiang District and the Pudong New Area trailed most closely with seven-day transactions reaching 26,000 square meters and 25,000 square meters, respectively.

The average cost of a new home jumped 14.9 percent week over week to 54,477 yuan (US$7,971) per square meter, as medium to high-end properties were popular among home buyers, Centaline data showed.

A Longfor Property project in Jiading grabbed the title of most-popular residential development for the second straight week after selling 23,334 square meters, or 222 apartments, for an average price of 51,695 yuan per square meter. A housing development in outlying Fengxian District with a price tag of 17,570 yuan per square meter followed immediately with weekly sales of 14,004 square meters, or 160 units, according to Centaline data.

In the top 10 list, three projects cost more than 80,000 yuan per square meter.

On the supply side, some 302,000 square meters of new houses spanning 11 projects were released onto the local market, a week-over-week surge of 140 percent.

As of Sunday, new home sales in July already reached some 5,500 units in Shanghai, outperforming 4,600 units in April which was the best-performing month so far this year, Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co said in a separate report.