New home sales nearly triple last week
New home sales nearly tripled in Shanghai last week amid ample supply, the latest market data showed.
The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, soared 186 percent to around 170,000 square meters during the seven days to Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released on Monday.
“Last week’s major rebound, boosted by robust sales in remote areas, was not unexpected after the market lost its strength for two straight weeks,” Lu Wenxi, Centaline’s senior research manager said. “As new supply remained abundant, it’s likely that seven-day sales would improve.”
Across the city, the former Nanhui area, Qingpu and Songjiang districts registered extraordinary performances, unloading 37,000 square meters, 20,000 square meters and 18,000 square meters, respectively. Outlying districts such as Fengxian and Jiading also recorded sales of more than 10,000 square meters.
Citywide, new homes sold for an average 50,961 yuan (US$7,583) per square meter, a week-on-week decrease of 4.7 percent.
In the top 10 list, eight projects cost no more than 60,000 yuan per square meter with one development in Chongming Island selling for less than 28,000 yuan per square meter.
On the supply side, a total of 229,000 square meters of new homes in six projects, including two within the Inner Ring Road, went on the market last week, a weekly fall of 10.5 percent.
“As we are approaching the end of March, which usually sees a rise in transaction volume as developers gear up to boost their first-quarter performance, new home sales might even push 200,000 square meters this week,” Lu predicted.