Shanghai Home Sales Spike in March

Around 1.51 million m2 of residential properties was sold in Shanghai in March, up 91% on just a month earlier, according to Shanghai Youwin Real Estate Research Center. The top 10 developments out of some 1,200 available for sale accounted for 17% of the 1.5 million m2. The high volume pushed up the average price by 8% from February to ¥13,100 per m2. Shanghai Kaiyi Investing and Consulting Co, a mortgage issuer, extended ¥200 million in housing loans last month and put the figure at ¥4.5 billion citywide. 436 upscale apartments [with a price tag of ¥30,000/m2 or above] were traded in March, compared to 83 a month earlier. Officially, area of vacant residences in the Shanghai totaled 12.1 million m2 as of March 20, according to the local Bureau of Statistics whereas Shanghai residents' propensity to buy a home was lower than national average, China's central bank said.

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