The benchmark index, which tracks both price and volume, climbed 1.1 percent in March and gained 0.93 percent in February, the Shanghai Existing Property Index Office said in its monthly report released yesterday.

The number of second-hand homes sold in the city in different areas surged between 20 percent and 50 percent year-on-year.

However, the prices of the second-hand houses rose a little slower than for new apartments. The second-hand apartment prices' monthly gains stood at around 1 percent, compared with a 1.5-percent increase in the new housing index each month so far this year.

Second-hand housing in Pudong District saw the fastest growth rate in the city, with the Century Park area leading the rise with 13.6 percent. But the most expensive second-hand houses are in the Huaihai Road area, where the average price remained almost unchanged at 7,829 yuan (US$943) per square meter.

The office noted the supply of second-hand houses had exceeded that of new apartments in areas such as the downtown Jing'an and Huangpu dis-tricts, where available land for new residences is limited.

Some new apartments, which have changed hands directly from one owner to another, boosted transactions in the sector.

"Those second-hand apartments, in which no one has lived, are most popular," said Huang Weiwei, the office's secretary-general.

(Shanghai Daily May 20, 2003)