New home sales up 5.7% in last week of July

New home sales in Shanghai climbed during the last week of July, the latest market data showed.

The total area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 5.7 percent week over week to around 234,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a regular report issued on Monday.

Citywide, Nanhui region of the Pudong New Area surpassed Qingpu District to become the most popular area with weekly sales totaling 49,000 square meters. Qingpu and Baoshan districts followed most closely, registering transactions of around 29,000 square meters and 23,000 square meters, respectively, Centaline data showed.

The average new home cost, meanwhile, dipped 0.8 percent week over week to 51,132 yuan (US$7,315) per square meter.

"Buying momentum remained strong with nine districts/regions posting sales above the 10,000-square-meter threshold, one fewer than the previous week," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior researcher. "Notably, luxury developments with a price tag of more than 100,000 yuan per square meter also returned to the list of top 10 projects, for the first time in three weeks."

Eight of the 10 bestselling projects cost less than 50,000 yuan per square meter, with a development in Nanhui outperforming all after unloading some 30,700 square meters, or 327 apartments, for an average price of 21,925 yuan per square meter. A Shui On Land project in downtown Hongkou District ranked No.10 after selling 3,188 square meters, or 17 units, for an average price of 114,921 yuan per square meter, according to Centaline data.

On the supply side, about 98,000 square meters of new houses spanning four projects were released into the local market last week, a jump of 70.6 percent from the previous seven-day period.

For July, new home transactions edged up 1.1 percent from a month ago to around 822,000 square meters, despite a drop in new supply, which fell 22.4 percent to some 402,000 square meters. Average cost of a new home dipped 0.8 percent month over month to 55,796 yuan per square meter, Centaline data showed.