Shanghai records surge in weekly new home sales

Seven-day sales of new homes jumped to a new year-to-date high during the last week of August amid robust sentiment in outlying areas.

The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-funded affordable housing, jumped 49.1 percent to about 265,000 square meters during the seven-day period through Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in its regular Monday report.

"That marked strength for the third consecutive week and also the highest weekly figure registered so far this year," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior research manager.

Nanhui in Pudong New Area outperformed the local market, with weekly sales hitting some 44,000 square meters, a week-over-week surge of 46.7 percent. Remote Minhang, Songjiang and Fengxian districts closely trailed with seven-day new home sales all above 35,000 square meters, Centaline data showed.

The average price of a new home edged up 2.5 percent from a week earlier to 49,513 yuan (US$6,899) per square meter, remaining below the 50,000-yuan-per-square-meter barrier for another week as medium to low-end apartments continued to be the most popular.

In particular, three of the 10 best-selling projects managed to record weekly sales of more than 100 units, according to Lu, who explained that such strong results are highly unusual.

A China Vanke project in Minhang, for example, sold 24,882 square meters, or 234 units, alone for an average price of 40,904 yuan per square meter during the seven-day period, dwarfing all counterparts around the city. A Gemdale development in Songjiang unloaded 130 units and a Poly Real Estate project in Nanhui sold 117 units, ranking  second and third respectively on the list.

Also notable, a luxury residential development in Lujiazui of Pudong grabbed the No. 4 position after selling 43 units for an average price of 126,502 yuan per square meter, Centaline data showed.

Of last week's 10 most popular projects by area, six cost less than 50,000 yuan per square meter.

New supply, meanwhile, rebounded to a relatively normal level after a significant dive in the previous week.

A total of 163,000 square meters of new homes across five projects, most in outlying areas such as Jinshan District, were launched into the local market last week, compared with only 27,000 square meters released during the previous seven-day session.