THE average new home cost rose to a 20-week high last week in Shanghai amid strong sales of luxury properties while overall transaction volume registered a rather insignificant rebound during the same period, latest market data showed.

The average price of new residential properties, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, climbed 2 percent to 25,566 yuan (UD$4,137) per square meter during the seven-day period ended on Sunday, remaining above the 25,000-yuan-per-square-meter threshold for the second straight week, Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co said today in an report.

Meanwhile, new home purchases rose 7.3 percent week-on-week to 164,300 square meters.

"Despite the mild recovery, new home sales in the city stayed below the 200,000-square-meter threshold for the third consecutive week, mainly due to sluggish sentiment recorded in the mid- to low-end segment," said Lu Qilin, a Deovolente researcher. "In contrast, the luxury sector registered extremely good sales last week, pushing up the city's average cost of a new home to a 20-week high."

Around the city, 54 residential properties with a price of more than 50,000 yuan a square meter were sold, an increase of 19 from the previous week, Deovolente data showed. Among all, a 592-square-meter duplex apartment at Ocean One, a COFCO development in the heart of Little Lujiazui, fetched 108 million yuan alone, or 182,800 yuan per square meter on average, making it the first apartment sold in Shanghai this year for above 100 million yuan.

On the supply side, about 204,400 square meters' new houses, majority of which mid- to high-end properties, were released to the local market last week, almost doubling from the previous seven-day period, Deovolente data showed.