(Yicai) Jan. 8 -- Second-hand home sales in Shanghai reached a near four-year high last month after the local real estate market experienced the most lenient period of policy regulation in nearly a decade last year.

Some 29,700 pre-owned houses changed hands in Shanghai last month, according to data released on the website of the Shanghai Real Estate Trading Center. The figure rose 26 percent to 242,700 units last year from the previous year.

Shanghai introduced several supporting policies in late May and September, including easing purchase restrictions, lowering downpayment ratios and mortgage rates, and removing the distinction between ordinary and non-ordinary residential properties. These measures fueled a strong real estate market recovery in the fourth quarter of last year, insiders said.

Monthly pre-owned home sales climbed steadily last quarter, while there were 10 days in December with daily online sales of over 1,000 units, which peaked at more than 1,400 units, Lu Wenxi, senior market analyst at the local branch of Centaline Real Estate, told Yicai.

The number of Lianjia clients visiting properties in Shanghai nearly doubled to reach a record high last year from 2020, according to data from the leading Chinese real estate agent.

Prices also stabilized thanks to the sustained rise in sales, Lu noted. Most second-hand houses were offered at around an 85 percent discount before the new supporting policies kicked in late September, but the bargaining room significantly narrowed afterward, and most discounts settled around 95 percent, Lu pointed out.

Since 2022, Shanghai's pre-owned home prices have been falling by an average of around 1 percent a month, according to market research firm CRIC. However, the decline gradually slowed as the market picked up last October.

Despite a roughly 20 percent year-on-year drop in new home sales last year, the average price of newly built houses in Shanghai rose 15.2 percent to CNY76,522 (USD10,437) per square meter because of a significant growth in luxury home sales.

More than 2,500 new properties priced at over CNY30 million (USD4.1 million) were sold in Shanghai last year, a 170 percent surge from the year before, according to Lu. Data from CRIC also showed that the figure accounted for 62 percent of the total in China.

Editor: Martin Kadiev