The average cost of new homes rose to a record in Shanghai last week but buying sentiment remained stable, according to latest market data.

New homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, were sold for an average of 41,259 yuan (US$6,180) per square meter, up 4.9 percent from the previous seven-day period and the highest ever registered in the city, Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co said yesterday.

“For the first time, the average price exceeded 41,000 yuan per square meter with medium- to high-end projects remaining popular among home buyers,” said Ke Xiaojuan, a Homelink researcher.

Shanghai recorded 287,900 square meters of new houses sold, a weekly gain of 3.9 percent.

“Market sentiment also seemed quite stable with weekly transactions of new houses hovering around 280,000 square meters for three consecutive weeks,” Ke said.

The outlying districts of Jiading, Qingpu and Songjiang led in sales as each sold more than 200 homes.

Around 103,600 square meters of new houses were released in the city, a weekly drop of 34.8 percent.

“It seemed that developers were holding back their releases as the golden season for property purchases is coming in September and October,” Lu Wenxi, a senior research manager at Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co, said yesterday.

(Source: Shanghai Daily  Author: Cherry Cao)