Home buyers out in force during festival

Residential property sales were robust during the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival last week with transactions of more than 93,000 square meters the second highest three-day volume since 2008.

Purchases of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, totaled 93,300 square meters in Shanghai during the festival, according to Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co figures.

.That was the second-highest three-day volume registered since 2008 for the mooncake festival, excluding 2009 and 2012 when two national holidays — the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day — were celebrated together,. said Lu Qilin, a Deovolente researcher. .In the first three weeks of this month as of Saturday, new home sales in Shanghai totaled 811,500 square meters, exceeding the entire volume of 809,900 square meters recorded in September 2012..

Analysts predict purchases in the city may hit 1.2 million square meters this month.

Meanwhile, 184,500 square meters of new houses were released between Thursday and Saturday, accounting for more than 27 percent of new supply citywide this month.

A mid to high-end residential project in the Pudong New Area was the best-selling scheme in the city with 53 units sold for an average of 37,401 yuan (US$6,111) per square meter.