Luxury properties defy China’s slumping home sales as big-city buyers splash out
- Sales of homes above 30 million yuan (US$4.2 million) in Shanghai hit a 10-year high in the first half of the year, CRIC data shows
China’s premium property market is in the midst of a recovery despite the gloomy mass market, as two luxury projects in Shanghai sold out soon after they were launched over the weekend.
A batch of 110 flats at One Sino Park, developed by Sunac China Holdings, sold out within two hours of launch on Saturday, pulling in 5.7 billion yuan (US$798 million). Located in Huangpu district, the project, priced at 171,000 yuan per square metre (15,886 yuan per square foot), was nearly double subscribed ahead of the launch.
In nearby Putuo district, Yuexiu Property’s Suhe Grand Mansion also sold all 124 flats it offered on Saturday, attracting 350 subscriptions before the launch despite a price of 103,570 yuan per square metre. The average price of new homes sold in Shanghai in July was 64,466 yuan per square metre, according to real estate information provider Fang.com.
The successful sales continue a trend of robust performance by luxury projects so far this year, despite the country’s downtrodden property sector. Homebuyers snapped up 1,544 luxury homes with prices above 30 million yuan in Shanghai in the first half of the year, the highest in 10 years, CRIC data showed.
Overall, China’s property market suffered the 14th consecutive month of decline in new home prices in July, and the country’s top 100 developers recorded a 40 per cent drop in home sales in the first six months to 1.85 trillion yuan, according to China Real Estate Information Corp (CRIC).
Over the first six months this year in Shanghai, 20 out of 23 premium residential projects – priced at more than 100,000 yuan per square metre – sold more than 70 per cent of their inventory on the launch date, CRIC added.
