Shanghai's new apartments, excluding budget homes and houses designated for relocated residents, have been sold at an average price of 1.28 million yuan (US$172,970) per unit so far this year, a major real estate research firm disclosed yesterday.

The price represents an increase of 11.4 percent compared to 2006.

"By December 15, approximately 20.39 million square meters of new homes have been sold in the city with an average price of 10,292 yuan per square meter," said Xue Jianxiong, head of research at Shanghai Youwin Real Estate Information Service Co Ltd, the report compiler. "Last year, 16.77 million square meters of new houses were sold, at an average price of 9,432 yuan per square meter."

In terms of unit and space, 163,645 apartments have been sold till mid December, with an average unit space of 124.65 square meters (gross floor area), compared with 137,335 units sold in 2006 with an average GFA of 122.15 square meters, according to Youwin statistics.

"Though there are still two weeks to go (to the end of the year), we expect the total transaction area achieved this year to surpass 2006 by about 25 percent," Xue said.

Home buyers are paying ever higher prices for new homes not only in Shanghai, but also in other cities across the country.

Housing prices in 70 major Chinese cities jumped 10.5 percent in November, the largest monthly rise since July 2005, the National Development and Reform Commission said last week.

In Shanghai, one-third of the city's residential projects available for sale have seen a gain of more than 30 percent in prices over the past 12 months, a recent survey which tracks more than 300 projects, including apartment and villa developments, has found. Prices for more than one-10th of the 357 projects have jumped by 50 percent to 100 percent in the past year.

However, the ever-rising house prices have somewhat dented buyers' interest, and more people have chosen to wait.

A recent survey conducted by www.soufun.com's Shanghai branch has found that 55.33 percent of people now tend to postpone their house buying plans, hoping the recent tighter credit control policy might help wipe out speculators and therefore curb property prices.

(Shanghai Daily December 18, 2007)