BUYING of new apartments fell for the third straight quarter in Shanghai despite a gradual recovery in buying momentum over the past few weeks, according to latest market data.

Between January 1 and Wednesday, a total of 1.18 million square meters of new apartments, excluding government-funded affordable units, were sold, down 11 percent from the previous three months, Century 21 China Real Estate said in a report released yesterday.

"Compared with the same period in 2011 and 2010, this quarter's apartment transaction would also be the lowest as buying momentum didn't pick up until this month," said Huang Hetao, a research manager at Century 21. "The real estate developers also seemed not keen to release their projects over the past three months amid sluggish sentiment."

During the same period in 2011 and 2010, 1.4 million and 1.42 million square meters of new apartment units were sold in the city respectively, Century 21 data showed.

Sales of high-end apartments were comparatively stable over the past three months, mainly due to discounts of up to 15 percent offered by some developers.

As of Wednesday, 832,700 square meters of newly-built apartments were released to the local market, the lowest quarterly supply since 2010, according to Century 21.

Source:shanghaidaily.com