CK Asset sells 44 per cent of flats during weekend sale at Shanghai residential project as location, price controls draw buyers
- The project known as Upper West Shanghai sold 484 out of the 1,108 units on offer during three-day weekend sale
- Buyers were attracted in part by government price controls
Beijing’s curbs on how much developers can charge for homes has helped ignite sales, especially at the upper end of the market, as buyers snapped up nearly 500 flats at a prime project in Shanghai at prices 10 per cent lower than a similar development.
The sale, at CK Asset Holdings’ Upper West Shanghai project, bodes well for other prime projects with artificially low prices, analysts said.
CK Asset, which has two projects underway in Shanghai, netted 4.3 billion yuan (US$621 million) in the three days to Monday by selling 484 units, or 43.7 per cent of the 1,108 flats on offer at Upper West Shanghai, the company said.
The average selling price of 90,000 yuan per square metre is 10 per cent lower than the 100,000 yuan per square metre in a nearby project that sold early last year.
“The prices could be much higher without the government’s price curbs. There is a general rule that a new project cannot sell at an average price higher than similar nearby projects launched earlier,” said Lu Wenxi, Centaline's senior research manager in Shanghai.
The pricing restrictions will have a limited impact on CK Asset, as it acquired the site in 2006 for 3,055 yuan per square metre.
