A new residential project of Country Garden is seen in Shanghai. Sentiment among home buyers and real estate developers both rebounded notably in the city last week as the weeklong Chinese New Year holiday came to an end. — Reuters

Sentiment among home buyers and real estate developers both rebounded notably in Shanghai last week as the weeklong Chinese New Year holiday came to an end.

Sales of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, soared to 78,000 square meters during the seven-day period ended on Sunday, a week-on-week surge of 503 percent, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report yesterday.

With 21,000 square meters of new homes sold, the outlying Jiading District led the weekly transaction volume. It was closely followed by the Pudong New Area, where some 13,000 square meters of new homes were sold over the past week.

These new homes sold for an average 48,361 yuan (US$7,035) per square meter, down 5.5 percent from the previous week, Centaline data showed.

“The most popular project was able to register weekly sales of more than 100 units, indicating a rather rapid recovery in the market momentum,” said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline. “However, it remains unknown yet whether the recovery could be kept for some time.”

A Gemdale Corp residential project in Jiading sold 125 units over the seven days for an average 42,857 yuan per square meter while a high-end development in Pudong sold 66 units for an average 87,070 yuan per square meter.

The supply of new homes surged to about 61,000 square meters last week, up from just 81 square meters in the previous week, Centaline data showed.