New home sales fall while supply increases

NEW home buying in Shanghai fell last week after staying above 250,000 square meters for two consecutive weeks although supply surged, data showed.

The sales of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, shed 27.2 percent week on week to 188,300 square meters during the seven days through Sunday, Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co said yesterday.

"Buying sentiment had been strong in the city since mid November, so the latest retreat seemed rather natural," said Lu Qilin, a Deovolente researcher. "A notable rise in supply last week indicated that some developers were still ambitious to boost sales for better revenue."

Over 242,000 square meters of new homes were released locally last week, a weekly surge of 240 percent, according to Deovolente data.

The new homes were sold at an average of 21,236 yuan (US$3,376) per square meter each, down 5.3 percent from the previous week.

"Nine of the 10 best-selling projects last week cost no more than 1.7 million yuan per unit on average," said Huang Hetao, a researcher at Century 21 China Real Estate.

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