SALES of commercial housing in Shanghai totaled 13.06 million square meters in the first three quarters of this year, marking the lowest sales since 2005, according to a report released by the city's statistics bureau yesterday.

Despite continuously increasing new construction area, the sales volume of completed commercial housing fell to its lowest since 2005, a 13 percent decrease from the same period of last year, the report said.

Investment in the city's real estate grew in the first three quarters, up 7.1 percent year on year.