Shanghai home sales expand for fifth straight week

Shanghai's new housing market extended its strength for another week despite a retreat in new supply, the latest market data showed.

The total area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 5.3 percent week over week to around 282,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, the fifth weekly gain in a row, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a regular weekly report released on Monday.

Across the city, the Pudong New Area outperformed all with transactions hitting 77,000 square meters. Qingpu District ascended to the second place with weekly sales doubling to 32,000 square meters.

"The recent rebound in new supply helped bolster buyers' sentiment, with five projects managing to register more than 100 units each in sales over the past week which was very rare," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior researcher. "And transactions should remain above the 200,000-square-meter mark at least for another week as far as supply remains solid and stable."

Average price, meanwhile, rose to a historic high mainly due to structural shift. These new homes cost 70,793 yuan (US$9,986) per square meter on average, an increase of 4.2 percent from the previous week, according to Centaline data.

Dwarfing all in the bestseller list was a project in Biyun, Pudong, where 35,326 square meters, or 130 apartments, were sold for an average price of 109,759 yuan per square meter. A China Vanke development in western Qingpu District ranked No. 2 after unloading 22,164 square meters, or 186 apartments, at an average cost of 57,888 yuan per square meter.

By price point, three of the 10 bestselling projects cost more than 100,000 yuan per square meter, while two others stood between 80,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan per square meter.

On the supply side, a total of 157,000 square meters of new homes tailored to customers with various budgets were released into the local market, a 36.8 percent drop from the previous seven-day period but still close to normal levels, according to Centaline data.