Another banner week for new housing market

New home transaction remained above the 200,000-square-meter mark in Shanghai for another week despite a significant downturn in new supply, the latest market data showed.

The total area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-funded affordable housing, increased 9.4 percent week over week to 232,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a regular report issued on Monday.

Outlying Qingpu District, where sales more than doubled to around 46,000 square meters, outperformed all of its counterparts. Nanhui, formerly a district and now part of the Pudong New Area, came second with sales of 24,000 square meters, a week-over-week drop of 11.1 percent. Jiading District followed most closely with some 23,000 square meters of new houses being sold there, a drop of 20.7 percent from the previous week.

"In general, most of the remote districts managed to maintain their robust momentum, mainly due to ample new supply released earlier," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior researcher. "Therefore, the average new home price remained at a rather low level despite a moderate increase."

The average new home price climbed 5 percent week over week to 53,604 yuan (US$7,999) per square meter, according to Centaline data.

Citywide, a project in Qingpu dwarfed all others after selling 20,978 square meters, or 209 apartments, for an average price of 61,373 yuan per square meter. It was followed by a development in Nanhui which sold 8,140 square meters, or 79 units of new homes, at an average price of 34,551 yuan per square meter.

Among the top 10 projects by sales, seven cost less than 50,000 yuan per square meter, while the most expensive one sold for around 91,000 yuan per square meter.

New supply, meanwhile, suffered a major retreat with only 83,000 square meters of new houses spanning three projects being launched onto the market, compared with the average weekly introduction of around 120,000 square meters year to date, according to Centaline data.