Weekly sales of new homes in Shanghai fell last week but a robust buying momentum helped them stay above the 300,000-square-meter level for a second week in a row.
The purchases of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, fell 13.2 percent to 325,200 square meters during the seven-day period ended on Sunday, Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co said in a report released yesterday.
"Despite the fall, the weekly volume still suggested rather robust buying momentum among home buyers," said Huang Zhijian, chief analyst at Uwin.
"Moreover, sales have notably outnumbered supply for two straight weeks which should be a quite good sign for the market."
About 153,400 square meters of new houses were released locally last week, down 33.4 percent from the previous week, Uwin data showed.
The new homes sold last week cost an average 30,227 yuan (U.S.$4,868) per square meter, a week-on-week rise of 4.4 percent.
A luxury development in Daning, Zhabei District, was the best-selling project in the city for the week when it sold 99 units at an average price of over 68,300 yuan, according to Uwin.
New home sales in April in Shanghai surged 59.3 percent from March to 1.24 million square meters, the highest since January, a separate report released by Uwin showed. The average price of new homes rose 5.3 percent month on month to 29,422 yuan per square meter.
New home supply also surged to a four-month high of 1 million square meters in April, up from 510,000 square meters in March.
