New home sales plunged in Shanghai as weak sentiment among buyers extended for a second week.
The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, dropped 47.3 percent to around 91,000 square meters in the seven days to Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in its regular Monday report.
Across the city, only three districts, namely Fengxian, Songjiang and Jiading, managed to stand above the 10,000-square-meter barrier while not a single project recorded weekly transaction of 50 units or above.
"Not abundant new supply in previous weeks as well as the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, among others, were major reasons behind the notable retreat of new home sales last week," said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior research manager. "Sluggish momentum would probably prevail in the market with seven-day volume not likely exceeding 200,000-square-meter threshold over the next few weeks."
Citywide, the average cost of a new home fell 5.7 percent from a week earlier to 51,367 yuan (US$7,399) per square meter mainly due to a structural shift, according to Centaline data.
Medium-to-low end properties were the most popular among buyers. Only three of the top 10 projects in terms of transaction area sold for more than 50,000 yuan per square meter with one costing over 90,000 yuan per square meter.
Outperforming all were two developments in outlying Fengxian, which offloaded 3,368 square meters, or 41 apartments, and 3,217 square meters, or 35 units, respectively, during the seven-day period both for less than 20,000 yuan per square meter.
On the supply side, five projects, majority of which medium to low-end developments, were released into the local market last week, adding a total of 106,000 square meters into the city's new housing inventory, slightly higher than some 100,000 square meters launched in the previous week, Centaline data showed.
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