New home cost in Shanghai surged to a record last week amid a structural shift despite a drop in buyer sentiment because of the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, latest market data suggest.
The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, fell 13.3 percent from the previous seven-day period to 189,000 square meters, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released yesterday.
"The decline was actually no surprise due to the three-day holiday but the sales performance was still kind of below market expectations," said Lu Wenxi, a senior manager of research at Centaline. "Only about 50,000 square meters of new homes were sold in the city during the three-day holiday, the lowest in four years."
The new houses were sold for an average 47,750 yuan ($7,164) per square meter, a week-on-week jump of 14.4 percent and a record in the city.
Robust sentiment in the luxury segment seemed apparent with four of the 10 most sought-after projects costing 70,000 yuan per square meter and above. In particular, a development in downtown Xuhui District with a price tag of over 100,000 yuan per square meter managed to secure third place with weekly transaction totaling 48 units, a rare occurrence in the city.
On the supply side, less than 78,000 square meters of new houses were released on to the local market last week, a dip of 64.4 percent from the previous week, Centaline data showed.
