THE volume of housing transactions in Shanghai last week jumped 50 percent weekly because the supply of new homes more than doubled as developers rushed to launch new projects at year's end, according to a latest industry report.

A total of 321,000 square meters of homes were transacted last week at an average price of 23,008 yuan (US$3,486) per square meter, almost unchanged from the week ended November 21, real estate website Soufun.com said in a report yesterday.

Pudong New Area registered the biggest transaction volume at 67,540 square meters, accounting for more than one fifth of overall transactions.

New home supply more than doubled from the previous week to 305,000 square meters last week.

The number of apartments and villas sold last week surged 57 percent from the previous week to 2,849 units.

Last week, five villa projects and 10 apartment projects, including one mixed development, were launched. This was even more than the number of new projects launched in the first week of October, which is traditionally regarded as the prime period for the real estate market.

"Many developers are eager to launch new projects to make money before the market enters a low ebb by the end of this year, which resulted in the surge in property supply," said Soufun's report.

The total new home supply from November 1 to November 28 hit 1.03 million square meters, beating 950,000 square meters in October.