New housing market in city pulls back in November

Shanghai's new housing market suffered a major retreat in November with average prices hitting a year-to-date low amid sluggish sales in the luxury and high-end segments.

By area, the volume of new residential properties sold — excluding government-subsidized affordable housing — fell 19.4 percent from the previous month to 771,000 square meters, according to a regular monthly report released on Tuesday by Shanghai Centaline Property Consultancy.

"November's sales were the lowest in the second half but the setback was quite normal after strong performances in September and October," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior research manager. "Inadequate new supply, which totaled only 160,000 square meters, also greatly affected sentiment among home buyers."

By contrast, 767,000 square meters of new housing hit the local market in October, and 1.15 million square meters were rolled out in September, according to Centaline data.

Meanwhile, the average price of a new home fell 1.6 percent from October to 52,890 yuan (US$8,015) per square meter, mainly due to robust sales in the medium to low-end segment.

Of the top-10 residential projects by sales, six were priced at less than 50,000 yuan per square meter while the most expensive sold for just over 63,000 yuan per square meter, according to Centaline data.

Dwarfing all others was a development in Minhang District, which unloaded 27,667 square meters, or 275 apartments, at an average price of around 40,000 yuan per square meter.

In the next month, industry analysts expect to see a notable rebound in buyers' sentiment as developers gear up for a positive yearly report.