City's new home prices hit record high

Shanghai new home prices hit a record high last week as market sentiment remains strong and with robust growth in the supply of medium- and high-end homes.

The average cost of a new home jumped 11.1 percent to a record 68,179 yuan (US$9,794) per square meter, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants said in their latest weekly report Monday.

“Six of the 10 best-selling projects, including the top two, cost more than 80,000 yuan per square meter, which was a rare scene,” said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline.

“It was mainly fueled by the recent robust supply in the medium- to high-end segment, something that we continued to see during the past week.”

The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-funded affordable housing, stayed flat at around 143,000 square meters during the seven days to Sunday.

But the area of new homes, spanning seven projects, released fell 11.5 percent to 241,000 square meters. Five of the projects were within the Middle Ring Road, Centaline said.

The Pudong New Area remains the most popular, but sales fell 10,000 square meters to 29,000 square meters. Xuhui and Minhang followed, each with sales of 17,000 square meters.

A project in downtown Xuhui District was most in demand, selling 13,057 square meters, or 86 units, for an average 92,827 yuan per square meter.

The next most popular was a development in Sanlin, Pudong, which sold 8,500 square meters, or 92 units, for an average price of 81,507 yuan per square meter.