Mixed outlook on cost of homes

Average price of a Shanghai villa fell nearly 6 percent from January to August

Chen Sanxia, an estate agent in Xintiandi, one of Shanghai's luxury home clusters, sold five apartments in the first half of 2012. The total price of these deals was more than 30 million yuan ($4.7 million), but Chen said it could not compare with the first half of 2011.

In Shanghai, as many as 1,126 luxury apartments with prices higher than 10 million yuan were sold between Jan 1 to Aug 15 of 2012. The average price of these apartments was 60,700 yuan per square meter, a 5.7 percent year-on-year decrease, according to Jenny Wu, a director with the property service department of DTZ China.

As for villas with prices higher than 10 million yuan in Shanghai, some 290 villas with total space of 108,726 square meters were sold from Jan 1 to Aug 15. The average price of these villas was 51,900 yuan per square meter.

The villa market in Shanghai between Jan 1 and Aug 15 saw a 33.2 percent year-on-year decrease in the number of villas sold, a 39.8 percent year-on-year decrease in the total space of villas sold, and a 5.9 percent year-on-year decrease in average price, according to Wu.

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