Supply of new housing jumped nearly 40 percent last week amid sluggish market performance, according to today's Shanghai Morning Post.

Data from ehomeday.com, a leading online housing broker, indicated that 37 new housing projects commenced sales in the previous week, totaling 5,777 apartments with a total floor-area of 574,000 square meters.

The increase in supply, up 37 percent from a week ago in terms of floor-area, has outpaced transaction growth, as of the 159,000 square meters sold, only regular commercial housing registered an increase, of 1.13 percent.

The regular housing projects made up 54.8 percent of the total space sold, while budget housing constituted 39.6 percent and higher-to-mid housing accounted for only 5.6 percent.

Trading at projects in the suburban ring area reported the highest rise at 23.88 percent, while in the downtown Jing'an District, no contract was recorded.

(Shanghai Daily July 25, 2005)