Shanghai's new housing market continued to lose its strength with a double-digit decrease in sales and zero supply for the second straight week.
The area of new homes sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, fell 18.9 percent to 88,000 square meters during the seven-day period ended Sunday, following a 30-percent plunge in the previous week, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released yesterday.
Outlying Qingpu District, despite a week-over-week retreat of 11.8 percent, registered sales of 15,000 square meters, the most among all districts. Remote Jiading District trailed closely with 13,000 square meters sold, up 10 percent from the previous week.
"None of the other areas recorded weekly sales exceeding 10,000 square meters, which was very rare, indicating extremely sluggish sentiment among buyers," said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline. "The average price, on the other side, remained at a high level despite an insignificant withdrawal."
The new homes sold for an average of 51,225 yuan (US$6,514) per square meter, a week-over-week decline of 1.8 percent, Centaline data showed.
Citywide, units in four of the 10 most popular projects cost above 50,000 yuan per square meter while the number of developments with a price of under 30,000 yuan per square meter also stood at four.
A housing development in Nanhui of Pudong New Area became the most sought-after project after selling 3,750 square meters, or 26 units, for an average price of 21,883 yuan per square meter. A project in Baoshan asking for 54,790 yuan per square meter was second after selling 3,380 square meters, or 29 new houses.
For the second week, no project was launched locally, leaving growing pressure on sales over the next couple of weeks.
"New home sales in the city will probably hover around a very low level in the coming week and the next," Lu said. "No major recovery in supply should be anticipated until September perhaps."
