THE rise in property prices in Shanghai does not seem to be abating because buyers have to pay more for their dream homes if recent prices are anything to go by.
Buyers at more than half of the city's newly-released residential properties over the past one and a half months have had to pay higher prices, a local property research organization said yesterday.
"Among the 77 batches of new residential projects (excluding those designated for relocation uses) launched in the local market between March 1 and yesterday, 40 were sold at higher asking prices while only three fell,'' said Huang Hetao, an analyst at Shanghai Youwin Real Estate Information Services Co.
Meanwhile, transaction prices for the city's new residential properties have also been climbing.
According to Youwin statistics, Shanghai's new homes were sold at an average 11,552 yuan (US$1,650) per square meter, 11,043 yuan per square meter and 13,106 yuan per square meter in the first three months of this year. For the first half of April, the price jumped to 15,896 yuan per square meter.
However, industry experts explained that the increase and decrease in housing prices are also partly influenced by the properties' location and quality, which means the monthly figure usually rises when more prime-located high-end properties are sold and it drops if more in remote areas are transacted during the period.
Huang said it's better to view price declines for the few properties as a "rational adjustment'' rather than a "real cut.''
For instance, an apartment project developed by Hong Kong-listed Hopson Development Holdings Ltd in the city's northeastern New Jiangwan Town was launched last week at an asking price of 20,500 yuan per square meter, a drop from 24,000 yuan per square meter in November.
In fact, the project's asking price had been hovering around 11,000 yuan per square meter between April 2006 and March 2007.
The price then skyrocketed to its peak of 24,000 yuan per square meter after land prices in neighboring areas soared to 20,000 yuan in November last year.