About 29,200 units of existing properties were sold in Shanghai last month at an average price of 12,760 yuan (US$1,868) per square meter, a drop of 6.6 percent in volume and an increase of 2.8 percent in price.

The figures came Wednesday from Century 21 China Real Estate in its latest monthly report.

"The July correction in transaction volume was normal after the market gained strength for five consecutive months," said Zhang Weiping, general manager for Century 21's Shanghai operation, which runs the city's second-largest brokerage chain.

"A reiterated 40-percent down-payment rule on second homes and continuously soaring prices have jointly curbed some buyers' interest."

The company expects the market correction to last through the third quarter, with monthly transaction volumes hovering about 25,000 and 28,000 units on average.

It predicted that the fourth quarter might see a small rebound when monthly volume could reach between 26,000 and 29,000 units on average.

Across the city, only Huangpu and Luwan districts registered month-on-month volume growth and Jing'an and Yangpu districts, among the losers, suffered the mildest decrease, both less than 5 percent, according to the company's research.

A report released yesterday by Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Ltd found sales of existing luxury apartments, priced above 30,000 yuan per square meter, more than tripled during the second quarter.

A total of 129,100 square meters of high-end apartments changed hands in the city between April and June, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 220 percent.

The average price, meanwhile, climbed 3.5 percent to 40,986 yuan per square meter, the company said.

However, continuously rising home prices coupled with sluggish leasing demand has further cut the average return-on-investment ratio for the city's luxury apartments.

Average yield retreated to 2.66 percent between the April-June period from 2.79 percent in the first quarter, Centaline statistics showed.

(Shanghai Daily August 6, 2009)