SHANGHAI will see a near tripling of new homes to be released over the weekend from a week earlier as the traditional peak season for home sales is approaching an end.

Some 1,332 new units at eight developments will be released, a jump of 186 percent from the previousweekend, real estate website Soufun.com said yesterday.

The figures exclude new apartments built for relocated residents under urban redevelopment plans.

Average asking prices of new homes set to be launched during the two-day period rose to 20,714 yuan (US$3,096) per square meter, a weekly increase of 45 percent.

The prices reflect the fact that one of the eight projects is located within the city's Inner Ring Road.

Under the developer's plan, some 250 units will be launched this time at an average asking price of 45,000 yuan per square meter.

The other projects are all located beyond the Outer Ring Road.

"New home prices will remain high in Shanghai for some time as many high-end projects have been coming out recently," said Lu Yiping, an analyst at Soufun. "For the whole month, a total of eight high-end residential developments, all with a price tag of above 40,000 yuan per square meter, have been released to the market."

Home buyers, however, can look to discounts to be offered.

At least six of the eight projects to be released this weekend have confirmed that they will offer some discounts to trigger sales, according to Soufun research, which said last week that a total of 148 projects across the city are offering discounts, a number that has risen since mid-April when the central government began its toughest crackdown on property speculators.

For September and October, the peak season for home sales, about 111 residential projects have been released to the local market, an annual drop of 24 percent, Soufun said.

• previous [´pri:viəs] a.先，前，以前的 (初中英语单词)
• estate [i´steit] n.财产；庄园；等级 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• weekly [´wi:kli] a.&ad.每周一次(的) (初中英语单词)
• reflect [ri´flekt] v.反射；反响；表达 (初中英语单词)
• research [ri´sə:tʃ] n.&vi.调查；探究；研究 (初中英语单词)
• annual [´ænjuəl] a.每年的 n.年刊 (初中英语单词)
• exclude [ik´sklu:d] vt.拒绝；排斥；排除 (高中英语单词)
• offering [´ɔfəriŋ] n.提供；礼物；捐献 (高中英语单词)
• weekend [´wi:kend, ,wi:k´end] n.周末休假 (英语四级单词)
• traditional [trə´diʃənəl] a.传统的，习惯的 (英语四级单词)
• trigger [´trigə] n.扳机 vt.触发，启动 (英语六级单词)