THE average price of new homes remained above 20,000 yuan (US$3,000) per square meter in Shanghai for the seventh consecutive week while transaction volume declined for the fourth straight seven-day period.
New homes sold for an average 21,969 yuan per square meter last week across the city, a 5 percent decrease from a week earlier, Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co said yesterday.
Sales of two projects beyond the city's Outer Ring Road, both priced around 13,000 yuan per square meter, pulled down the average price.
A total of 174,000 square meters of new homes were sold during the seven-day period, down 16 percent from a week earlier, according to Uwin statistics. The figures exclude homes built for relocated residents under urban redevelopment plans.
"The latest round of tightening policies introduced in early October have affected buying sentiment as we can see from the declining volume over the past few weeks," said Lu Qilin, a researcher at Uwin. "While housing prices still remain high in the city, we've noticed that some real estate developers are starting to cut prices a bit to trigger sales."
For example, a residential development in outlying Jiading District sold 139 units during the past week after pricing its apartments nearly 10 percent cheaper than the average sale price at the same development in the first half of this year.
However, the majority of real estate developers, many of them still cash-affluent, are yet to slash prices despite decreasing volumes.
Gemdale Corp, which is scheduled to launch its first high-end housing development - Great Mansion - in Xujing, Qingpu, next week, said it remains confident that good quality, instead of price discounts, homes will help attract buyers. Located beyond the city's Outer Ring Road, more than 200 units at Great Mansion, most of which have a gross floor area of about 200 square meters, will be launched at a price of nearly 30,000 yuan per square meter when it is released next Tuesday, the company said.
On October 7, Shanghai announced that each household, both local and those from outside the city, is restricted to one new home purchase.