SHANGHAI'S new housing market continued to grapple with sluggish sentiment for a second straight week amid decreases in both sales and supply.

The purchases of new residential properties, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, fell 5 percent week-on-week to 153,200 square meters during the seven-day period that ended on Sunday, Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co said in its research report yesterday.

Last week, about 104,500 square meters of new residential properties were released on to the market, a week-on-week fall of 12.4 percent, Deovolente data showed.

The average price of new homes, however, still managed to head north despite lackluster momentum mainly due to comparatively better performance in the mid- to high-end segment. New homes sold last week averaged 25,066 yuan (US$4,056) per square meter, up 1 percent from the previous week.