Shanghai house transactions decline 27% in Dec

Shanghai's preowned house transactions in December shrank 27 percent month-on-month to 13,300 units, the lowest in the past 25 months, as a result of a series of measures to cool down the city's residential property market.

A research note issued by the Shanghai Existing Property Index Office, which tracks transaction data of preowned housing properties, said that more than 66 percent of transactions of preowned homes were sold below 3 million yuan ($431,100) per unit, a signal that buyers' demand is shifting from speculative or investment-oriented to self-use.

"In terms of average prices, about 44 percent of communities with preowned house supplies saw prices rise slightly around 0.7 percent in December, while the other 56 percent reported prices falling about 1 percent, or remaining unchanged," the research note said.