BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai posted a decline in sales volume and price of new homes last week.

The purchase of new homes, excluding government-funded affordable housing, tumbled 27.2 percent from a week earlier to 146,100 square meters in the city during the seven days ended on Sunday, said a report released yesterday by Shanghai Deovolente Realty Co.

"The robust sales recorded in the week before last, coupled with a government statement saying that singles, or unmarried buyers, are banned from buying a second home, made a dent in the weekly sales," said Lu Qilin, a researcher at Deovolente. "The sales of luxury properties were also sluggish."

The new homes were sold at an average 21,256 yuan (US$3,359) per square meter last week, a weekly fall of 2 percent. Twenty units costing more than 50,000 yuan a square meter were sold across the city, down from 35 units sealed the previous week, Deovolente data showed.

On the supply side, 220,5000 square meters of new residential properties were released locally last week, an increase of 50 percent from the previous seven-day period and also the highest in three weeks.

Industry analysts predicted this month may perform better than April if the current pace of sales could be sustained.