Sentiment among home buyers rebounds

Sentiment among home buyers rebounded in Shanghai last week amid improved new supply, pushing weekly transactions back to a six-digit level.

The area of new residential properties, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, jumped 43 percent to around 131,000 square meters in the seven days to Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in its regular Monday report.

Outlying districts of Fengxian and Qingpu both registered more than 17,000 square meters of sales, outperforming their counterparts around the city. Jiading, Songjiang and Pudong New Area also managed to stay above the 10,000-square-meter barrier due to recovering momentum.

Citywide, the average cost of a new home edged up 0.3 percent from a week earlier to 51,514 yuan (US$7,424) per square meter, with medium to low-end projects being the most sought-after types, according to Centaline data.

"Six of the 10 best-selling developments cost no more than 50,000 yuan per square meter while the most expensive one sold for around 88,000 yuan per square meter," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior research manager. "Notably, one project managed to register weekly sales of more than 100 units, a quite positive sign for the market."

A residential project in Minhang District stayed top last week with 140 apartments, or 11,192 square meters, being unloaded for an average price of 63,447 yuan per square meter. It was immediately followed by one development in remote Fengxian, where 50 units, or 6,106 square meters of new homes were sold at a price of 44,636 yuan per square meter.

On the supply side, six projects totaling some 263,000 square meters were launched onto the local market, a week-over-week surge of 148.2 percent and the second highest weekly volume recorded so far this year, Centaline data showed.