Second-hand house prices continue to rise
9/11/2004 17:33
Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news
With more owners
of second-hand homes in downtown areas reluctant to sell their properties,
prices of old homes have continued to rise in October and driven up the entire
housing market, an industry report said yesterday.
The Second-hand Housing
Index, a benchmark for the city's used housing prices compiled by the Shanghai
Real Estate Index Office, rose 19 points in October to a half-year high of
1,418, an increase of 1.3 percent from a month before.
The index for
most areas within the Inner Ring Road has grown, with those in the Nanjing Road
W. area up 1.9 percent, Xujiahui and Huaihai road areas up 1.5 percent, Lujiazui
up 1.1 percent and the northern Bund up 0.9 percent.
Few second-hand
properties were on sale in prime areas last month such as Century Park and
Jing'an Temple, since owners are expecting further price growth. Home owners are
turning to the rental market, real estate researchers said.
Housing trades in
Putuo, Zhabei and Baoshan districts were active in the past month.
Baoshan
has become the fourth district, following Xuhui, Changning and Huangpu, to see
its second-hand housing transactions surpass its new housing business.
Researchers attributed the business growth to the recent completion of the
northern extension of the Rail Transport Line 1 running through the district,
which has also bolstered the prices of properties along the rail line.
On the
other hand, the interest rate rise of last month has had little effect on the
housing market, the researchers noted, because they said the
0.27-percentage-point rise is not large.
But they expect the curb effect on
the property market will emerge a few months later as more buyers will take a
wait-and-see attitude considering the raised loan
costs.
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