OCTOBER seems on track to rank as the best-performing month year-to-date for new home sales in Shanghai as buying sentiment continued to be robust last week despite transactions slipping slightly, latest market data suggest.
The purchases of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, fell 4.2 percent week on week to 267,800 square meters during the seven-day period ended on Sunday, Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co said in a report released yesterday. But the sales stayed above the 200,000-square-meter level for the third consecutive week.
“Strong sales registered over the past three weeks provided a solid ground for a robust October, which is a high season for property sales,” said Huang Zhijian, chief analyst at Uwin. “It is possible that transactions may exceed 1 million (square meters) this month.”
By Sunday, 830,600 square meters of new homes were sold in Shanghai in October, Uwin data showed. That compared with March’s 864,100 square meters — the highest monthly figure recorded between January and September.
The average cost of the new homes fell 6.5 percent week on week to 26,522 yuan (US$4,336) per square meter.
A medium-to-low-end development in Zhoukang in the Pudong New Area outsold others last week when 103 units were sold at an average of 18,272 yuan per square meter.
