Home prices have fallen by 10.4 percent in the past week due to a large increase in the trade in government-sponsored low-priced housing, Monday's Shanghai Morning Post reported.

While the overall home prices were not made available, the report did say prices of common housing projects, excluding low-priced housing and luxury villas, also slid 8.4 percent last week to below 8,000 yuan (US$988) per square meter.

Thirty-five projects marketed 5,833 homes last week, with a total area of 656,000 square meters. Of the 347,000 square meters sold, 251,000 square meters are residential projects, up 9.5 percent over the previous week.

Trading in government-sponsored low-priced accommodation for the relocated reached 748 homes. This figure represents an increase in area of 40 percent, and accounts for 27.7 percent of the total residential spaces sold.

Prices in all districts except for Putuo, Zhabei, Luwan and Huangpu have fallen, with those in Changning, Jing'an, Pudong and Fengxian dropping by over 10 percent.

(Shanghai Daily September 21, 2005)