City's new home sales continue to fall

Weekly sales of new homes fell below the 100,000-square-meter threshold again in Shanghai as weakness extended for another week, according to the latest market data.

The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, dropped 11.8 percent from a week earlier to 88,000 square meters during the seven days to Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released on Monday.

"Only the Pudong New Area managed to register more than 10,000 square meters of sales while several downtown districts suffered zero sales again as momentum among buyers continued to fall," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior research manager. "Average prices, meanwhile, continued to go north amid comparatively robust sales in the medium to high-end segment."

Pudong recorded transactions of around 17,000 square meters, a week-on-week decrease of 26.1 percent. It was most closely trailed by the Nanhui area and Qingpu District, where 9,206 square meters and 8,381 square meters of new houses were sold, respectively. Zero sales continued to plague downtown Changning and former Luwan districts, according to Centaline data.

The average price of a new home further advanced 6 percent from a week earlier to 66,342 yuan (US$9,619) per square meter.

A luxury project in Pudong emerged as the most popular development after selling 7,638 square meters, or 35 units, of new homes for an average 118,769 yuan per square meter.

Among the top 10 list, four projects cost more than 80,000 yuan per square meter on average, while four asked for less than 40,000 yuan per square meter, Centaline data showed.

On the supply side, three developments, or 111,000 square meters of new homes in total, were released to the market, a surge of 262 percent from the previous seven-day session.

Despite the increase in supply, the market will most likely continue to be subdued through the end of the year, Centaline forecast.