Shanghai pre-owned home market rebounds in April

Shanghai's existing housing market showed signs of recovery last month amid the release of pent-up demand, according to the latest industry data.

Citywide, about 25,000 pre-owned homes changed hands in April, a month-over-month increase of 62 percent. On a year-on-year basis, the number fell 5 percent, Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co said in a regular monthly report released on Thursday.

By value, existing homes worth a total of 73.7 billion yuan (US$10.35 billion) were sold, a rise of 65 percent from the previous month. That, meanwhile, represented a 9-percent retreat year over year.

"Last month's robust sales should be viewed as a sign of resilience of the market, which is still recuperating its strength steadily," said Yang Yulei, a senior analyst with Homelink. "On the price side, the market seemed to have achieved some stability."

These pre-occupied homes cost an average of 38,593 yuan per square meter, almost unchanged from March. In terms of unit price, they sold for around 2.99 million yuan each, an increase of 2 percent, according to Homelink data.

By area, Jinshan New City, Pujiang in Minhang District and Nanqiao New City in Fengxian District were the most popular among pre-owned home seekers, with sales of 598, 586 and 541 homes, respectively.

Over the first four months of 2020, about 56,000 existing homes, valued at some 169 billion yuan in total, were sold across the city, down 29 percent and 28 percent, respectively, from the same period a year ago. The average price of these homes hit 3.03 million yuan per unit, or 38,928 yuan per square meter, both up 1 percent year on year, Homelink data showed.