ABOUT 330 homes at three projects in Shanghai will be released over the weekend, the highest number in seven weeks, according to real estate website Soufun.com.

The average selling price of the three developments is about 28,000 yuan (US$4,451) per square meter. Among them, one luxury housing project along the Huangpu River in downtown Xuhui District, with an average asking price of 85,000 yuan per square meter, will offer a 15 percent discount for its 50 units, whereas two low to mid-class developments in Jiading and Baoshan districts will both carry a price tag of about 16,500 yuan per square meter.

"This could be viewed as the latest sign that the city's housing market is gradually picking up its strength with weekend supply jumping to the highest in about one and a half months," said Tang Zhengwei, a Soufun analyst. "The momentum will probably extend over the coming weeks with the approaching of March, the traditional period when more real estate developers would start to gear up."

Sales of new homes, excluding government-funded affordable housing, soared 150 percent weekly to 65,700 square meters in Shanghai last week, extending its rise for the second week. New home supply also registered a 124 percent weekly surge with the release of 38,300 square meters of new units during the same period, according to earlier market data.