Existing home market resilient in first quarter

Shanghai's existing housing market wrapped up the first quarter of 2022 with more than 40,000 existing homes changing hands, a rather resilient pace under the dual negative impacts of Spring Festival and the pandemic.

Between January and March, around 41,000 previously owned homes were sold in the city for a total of 126.9 billion yuan (US$19.95 billion), a year-on-year plunge of 60 percent and 64 percent, respectively, according to the latest report released on Wednesday by Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency.

In March, 13,000 homes were sold for a total of 41.4 billion yuan, both a decrease of 67 percent from the same period a year ago.

"The significant retreat was primarily due to a high base recorded in the same period a year ago when market momentum was extremely robust," said Yang Yulei, a senior analyst at Homelink. "In fact, the average monthly transaction quantity of nearly 14,000 units seemed to represent signs of market resilience, with March's performance even mildly exceeding our expectations."

Average weekly transactions of existing homes surpassed 4,000 units in the first half of March, a pretty normal seven-day level, Yang added.

On average, existing homes sold for 3.12 million yuan per unit, or 38,782 yuan per square meter, during the first three months of the year, a decrease of 9 percent and 6 percent, respectively, from the previous year.

In terms of popularity, the Pudong New Area, Baoshan and Minhang were the most sought-after districts in the first quarter, while Nanqiao in Fengxian, Zhoukang in Pudong and the core area of Jiading emerged as the most favorable choices among home seekers, Homelink data showed.

"Hopefully the market will recover its strength and embrace stability again once the resurgence of the virus is brought under control," Yang said.