ONE-THIRD of the 18 residential projects due to release their units in Shanghai next month are located in Pudong New Area, according to latest research released by Soufun.com.

The city's property market will see the introduction of 15 apartment developments and three villa projects in April, the operator of the country's largest real estate website said yesterday. The 18 developments are a drop from 32 projects said to hit the market this month and 31 projects released in April 2011.

Tang Zhengwei, an analyst at Soufun, expected more developers to start sales in mid-April despite the more than 40 percent fall in project numbers compared with March and the same month a year earlier.

"As we have noticed, more developers in the city, in addition to offering larger discounts, have recently raised their frequency of project launches to trigger sales amid a slack momentum due to government austerity measures," Tang said.