Shanghai's land market continued to be sluggish this month following an extremely feeble May as a cautious sentiment hangs over real estate developers.

"Developers have been showing less confidence in the city's property market following a really slack May when both land and home sales ended very low," said Lu Qilin, a researcher at Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co.

"The market is not going to see any notable pickup at least until September or October because the traditional low season for property market is approaching."

Land sales in Shanghai were at their weakest in 26 months in May as only two parcels totaling 35,000 square meters were sold, a plunge of 90 percent from a month earlier. The aggregate value of sales, meanwhile, dropped 51 percent from April to 3.24 billion yuan (US$518 million), an earlier report released by Century 21 China Real Estate showed.

A 14,045-square-meter plot in Luodian, Baoshan District, designated for commercial purposes was sold yesterday at its asking price of 124.45 million yuan, or 4,430 yuan per square meter.

Another 45,070-square-meter residential plot in Xinchang, the Pudong New Area, fetched 762 million yuan, or 8,578 yuan per square meter, a premium of 12.3 percent.

Cautious sentiment also prevailed among homeseekers with more of them choosing to sit on the sidelines.

The purchases of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, fell 21.8 percent month on month, or 34.9 percent year on year, to 595,000 square meters last month, according to data released earlier by Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co.

Sales in the pre-owned home market fall 12.4 percent from April, or 27.5 percent from the same period a year earlier, to 15,100 units in May, Deovolente data showed.