Shanghai continued to post a sluggish home buying sentiment last week despite a slight rebound, as sales stayed below a 300,000 square-meter threshold, and supply fell again.

The purchases of new homes, excluding government-funded affordable housing, climbed 5.3 percent from the previous seven-day period to 273,100 square meters in the city, but they stayed below the threshold for the second straight week, Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co said in a report released yesterday.

The local supply of new houses fell by a week-over-week drop of 41.3 percent last week to under 130,000 square meters, Deovolente said.

"Market momentum started to ease since the local government issued further tightening policies on November 8, triggering a wait-and-see sentiment among home seekers," said Lu Qilin, a Deovolente researcher.

"At the same time, new home supply dived to a 12-week low as the government has tightened control on sales permits, particularly for mid- to high-end projects, as part of its latest effort to cool the market."

Meanwhile the average cost of the new homes edged up 0.7 percent week-on-week to 24,956 yuan (US$4,091) per square meter, Deovolente data showed.

As of Sunday, new home sales totaled 1.03 million square meters in Shanghai, up 7.8 percent from the same period in October, according to a report released yesterday by Century 21 China Real Estate.