Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news

The just-past week-long National Day holiday has failed to fuel the sluggish real estate sector in Shanghai, with property prices expected to drop in the fourth quarter, eastday.com reported today.
From 4-8 October only about 1,600 apartments were traded in the city, to give an average of around 300 apartments or nearly 180,000 square meters per day.
"Based on my experience, property prices are stable when more than 500 apartments are sold per day," said Xu Xiaoliang, general manager with the Shanghai Resource Property Consultancy Co Ltd.
A record-high of 160,000 people visited the 2005 Shanghai Autumn Real Estate Exhibition from October 3 to 6, but most of them displayed a wait-and-see attitude.
Last year, the ratio between property supply and demand was 1:1.28 in Shanghai, rising to 1:0.55 in the first eight months of this year, with demand down nearly 57 percent. The average price per square meter is expected to drop to 7,200 yuan (US$888) in the second half, with further reductions expected in the last several months of the year, according to local real estate research institutes.