Shanghai sees robust housing sales in March

New home sales in Shanghai more than doubled in March from a month earlier amid increased supply, an encouraging sign for real estate developers, according to latest market data.

The purchases of new residential properties, excluding government-funded affordable housing, surged 122.7 percent from February to 932,300 square meters last month, Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co said in a report yesterday.

"Robust sales registered in the last week of March, particularly the last three days, helped push up the volume to exceed 930,000 square meters, which was pretty good for that month of the year," said Huang Zhijian, chief analyst at Uwin.

"However, it is rather unclear whether the momentum will extend in the coming months since it depends on the upcoming supply in the mid- to low-end segment."

In terms of supply, more than 1.15 million square meters of new houses were released onto the local market last month, a surge of 82 percent from February, Uwin data showed.