Low-cost properties boost Shanghai home sales

Sales of new homes in Shanghai rebounded to their highest level in a month last week driven by robust demand for low-cost properties.

Sales by floor area in the seven days through Sunday, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, jumped 49.5 percent week on week to 201,700 square meters, Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services said in a report released yesterday.

The average price in the period fell 13.9 percent from the previous week to 24,386 yuan ($3,941) per square meter, it said.

The surge in volume was mostly due to an 89 percent increase in purchases of homes costing less than 25,000 yuan per square meter, said Huang Zhijian, chief analyst at Uwin.

"That also helped bring down the average selling price," he said.

Of the 10 most popular developments in the period, nine had an average price of less than 30,000 yuan per square meter, the report said. Last week's most popular development was in Nanhui, in the city's Pudong New Area, which saw sales of 285 apartments at an average price of 12,706 yuan per square meter.

As of Sunday, new home sales in Shanghai in July totaled 579,300 square meters, compared with 713,700 square meters in June and a monthly average of 677,000 square meters for the first half of this year.

On the supply side, 143,400 square meters of new residential properties were released last week, down 44.5 percent from the previous week.