New housing sales make expected slip during holidays

New housing sales in Shanghai retreated during the week-long National Day holiday, but the better performing high-end segment helped push average prices up to a record again, the latest industry data showed.

Across the city, about 56,000 square meters of new residential property, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, were sold during the seven-day period ending Sunday, a week-over-week drop of 68.8 percent, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released on Monday.

That, however, compared to some 22,000 square meters of transactions registered during last year's National Day holiday, Centaline data showed.

The Pudong New Area, where some 25,000 square meters of new homes were sold, mainly fuelled by comparatively ample supply released in previous weeks, emerged as the only area that saw weekly sales surpass the 10,000-square-meter threshold. It was most immediately trailed by the outlying districts of Qingpu and Fengxian, though neither managed to register weekly volume exceeding 9,000 square meters, according to Centaline.

"Not a single unit of new homes was launched onto the local market last week and media reports on price cuts by some developers to boost sales at their residential projects were also heard," said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline. "That will probably create a ripple effect and we therefore expect to see more such campaigns come out as real estate developers are facing ever mounting capital pressure."

The average cost of a new home rebounded sharply to 69,731 yuan (US$10,106) per square meter, a weekly surge of 29.2 percent, according to Centaline data.

Three of the top 10 most sought-after projects cost more than 100,000 yuan per square meter, with each of them recording sales of 20, 10 and 12 units, respectively.

Notably, two residential developments in Pudong's Qiantan area, both with a price tag of more than 80,000 yuan per square meter, managed to grab the top two spots on last week's list after selling 9,896 square meters and 8,010 square meters, respectively, during the holiday.