New home sales fall amid weak sentiment

Source: Xinhua | 2017-05-16

NEW home sales in Shanghai fell last week amid a continued lackluster sentiment among buyers and real estate developers, latest market data suggest.

The area of new homes sold, excluding government-funded affordable housing, fell 9.4 percent from the previous week to 149,800 square meters during the seven-day period ended on Sunday, Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co said in a report released yesterday.

The new homes cost 48,662 yuan (US$7,061) per square meter on average, down 3.2 percent from the previous week.

“Transactions of new houses remained below 150,000 square meters in four of the past six weeks as a prevalent ‘wait-and-see’ stance continued,” the report said.

Meanwhile “new home supply also remained low” despite some 108,200 square meters of new homes launched locally, against 81,200 square meters released in the previous week, Homelink data showed.