A SIGNIFICANT rebound in buying sentiment during the last week of September helped boost monthly transaction to this year's second-highest though it was still far from a satisfactory volume for this time of the year, industry data showed today.
The purchases of new residential properties, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, totaled 765,900 square meters in Shanghai last month, an increase of 17.1 percent from August and a year-on-year drop of 45.9 percent, Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co said in a latest report.
"In the first nine months of this year, that volume (in September) was only dwindled by March when more than 864,000 square meters of new houses were sold across the city," said Huang Zhijian, chief analyst at Uwin. "However, the volume was not as good as expected particularly considering an abundant supply of over 1.3 million square meters during the same period."
About 1.31 million square meters of new homes were released to the local market last month, an increase of more than 30 percent from August, according to Uwin data.
The average cost of new homes, meanwhile, rose 5.2 percent month-on-month to 27,669 yuan (US$4,506) per square meter.
Citywide, a residential project in Chuansha, Pudong New Area, became the city's most sought-after development in September when 226 apartments at the project were sold for an average price of 31,624 yuan per square meter, according to Uwin data.
For the last three months of this year, Huang expected the transaction volume to pick up as real estate developers will be more likely to provide attractive discounts to lure buyers as a result of generally sluggish sales registered in the first three quarters. Last year, an average of 1.06 million square meters of new homes was sold around the city, Uwin data showed.
China's central bank announced on the last day of September a cut in mortgage rates and minimum down payment levels for some home buyers in one of its biggest moves this year to boost an economy increasingly threatened by a sagging housing market.
Buyers who own a home and had paid off their mortgage will be considered first-home buyers and enjoy discounted mortgage rates of as much as 30 percent off the benchmark lending rate, the People’s Bank of China said. Previously, they had to pay 10 percent or more above the benchmark.
In terms of down payments, the new rule is that all first-home buyers can pay as little as 30 percent of the total price, while the original rule stated a buyer of a second home was subject to a minimum 70 percent down payment.
