Shanghai home sales rise 35 pct in H1

New-home sales in Shanghai jumped 34.8 percent year on year to 5.47 million square meters in the first half of 2015, Colliers International said Tuesday.

Home sales in the first quarter hit 1.96 million square meters and nearly doubled to 3.5 million square meters in the second quarter, data showed.

Carlby Xie, head of research at Colliers International (Beijing), the U.S. commercial real estate services company, said sales in the second quarter posted a strong rebound following a series of measures to boost the property market.

On March 30, the minimum down payment and transaction taxes for home purchases were reduced, and from March to June, the central bank cut the lending rates three times.

The sales boom, particularly high-end housing, pushed the average price up by 19 percent year on year to 31,615 yuan (5,100 U.S. dollars) per square meter, Xie said. Endite