New home sales fall for first time in 4 weeks

Cao Qian
New home sales in Shanghai fell for the first time in four weeks with medium to high-end houses remaining popular among buyers, the latest market data showed.
Cao Qian

New home sales in Shanghai fell for the first time in four weeks, with medium to high-end houses remaining popular among buyers, the latest market data showed.

The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, dropped 44.6 percent to 132,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released today.

"Last week's retreat was within our expectation as the market deserved a break following the rally of three consecutive weeks," Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline said. "Buying sentiment among home seekers, however, was not affected too much as the most popular development still managed to record weekly sales of over 100 units."

Citywide, Baoshan District was the best-performing area, with weekly sales climbing 6.8 percent to 31,000 square meters. Remote Jiading District trailed most closely with some 14,000 square meters of new home sales, a week-over-week decline of 36.4 percent, Centaline data showed.

The average cost of a new home stood at 58,655 yuan (US$8,579) per square meter, down 4.6 percent from that of the previous week which was a record in Shanghai. 

Four of the top five most sought-after projects cost between 50,000 yuan per square meter and 70,000 yuan per square meter, while in the top 10 list, two had a price tag of more than 90,000 yuan per square meter, according to Centaline data.

A residential project in Baoshan emerged as the most popular development after unloading 13,754 square meters, or 116 apartments, last week for an average cost of 52,206 yuan per square meter. It was followed by a development in Minhang, which sold 8,629 square meters, or 84 units, for an average price of 68,847 yuan per square meter.

Supply of new homes rebounded again last week. About 525,000 square meters of new houses were released onto the local market, a week-over-week surge of 239.7 percent.

"As new home supply continued to be ample, the market will very likely maintain its strength over the coming weeks," Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co said in a separate note.

As of Sunday, the number of new homes which either had been launched already or confirmed their release within August totaled 5,800 units, Homelink data showed. That compared with 9,200 units in April and 8,700 units in July.


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