Sentiment among home buyers and real estate developers both rebounded in Shanghai last week at a double-digit pace while average cost fell slightly because of a structural shift, latest industry data suggest.

The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, jumped 41.4 percent week over week to 267,300 square meters, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released today.

These new houses were sold for an average 45,815 yuan (US$6,855) per square meter, a decline of 4.1 percent from the previous seven-day period.

"Despite the rebound, overall momentum among home seekers has definitely eased from the previous high with outlying developments attracting the most attention from first-time buyers as well as upgraders," said Lu Wenxi, a senior manager of research at Centaline.

Citywide, a residential project in Nanhui, Pudong New Area, led all with 351 apartment units being sold during the past week at an average price of 28,999 yuan per square meter, the cheapest among last week's top 10 best-selling projects, four of which cost 70,000 yuan per square meter and above, Centaline data showed.

On the supply side, some 98,000 square meters of new houses spanning four projects were released to the local market for sale, a week-over-week increase of 26.7 percent. Three of them target home upgraders while the remaining one seeks mainly cash-tight first-time buyers.

As of today, the local inventory of new houses totaled around 6.99 million square meters, down from some 7.12 million square meters registered three weeks ago, according to the city's official real estate website.

(Source: shanghaidaily.com  Author: Cherry Cao)