More than 200,000 square meters of new homes were transacted in Shanghai last week for the third straight week, helped by steadily rising buying sentiment.
The purchases of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 6.6 percent to 219,200 square meters last week, Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co said in a report released yesterday.
The new homes cost an average of 29,829 yuan (US$4,797) per square meter, a weekly drop of 3.8 percent, the report added.
"Buyers' sentiment climbed steadily over the past week in both the mid-to-low-end segment and the higher-end sector, boosted by the latest batch of favorable policies from the government," said Lu Qilin, a researcher at Deovolente.
"Developers' momentum also picked up notably with new home supply surging during the seven-day period."
About 218,500 square meters of new houses were released locally last week, a weekly jump of 207 percent, Deovolente data showed.
"The upcoming weeks will probably see more homes come onto the market as the Labor Day holiday is approaching while new home transactions will continue to improve amid favorable mortgage policies announced recently," Lu said.
Citywide, six of the 10 best-selling projects last week cost under 25,000 yuan per square meter, with one development in Dachang, Baoshan District, becoming the most popular after selling 64 units at 23,425 yuan a square meter on average.
Sales in the luxury segment also did well last week with 136 units of new luxury homes costing an average of over 50,000 yuan per square meter sold, up five from the previous week.
