Seven-day sales of new homes remained below the 100,000-square-meter threshold for the second straight week in Shanghai, further evidence of extended weakness in the traditional low season heading into the Spring Festival.

The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, climbed 5 percent to 98,000 square meters last week, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report yesterday.

Houses sold for an average 47,119 yuan (US$6,830) per square meter, a week-on-week increase of 16.3 percent.

“Extremely sluggish momentum among both home buyers and developers was registered across the city with the latter not launching a single unit of new house in the local market during the whole week,” said Lu Wenxi, senior manager of research at Centaline.

“As rein-in measures remained implemented and the approach of the Spring Festival holiday, the monthly transaction volume in January would not exceed 400,000 square meters if this pace of sales is maintained, which will probably be the lowest for the same period in about five years.”

An apartment project in Xuhui District sold 41 units last week for an average price of 81,481 yuan per square meter, making it the most popular development.