BUYING sentiment for high-end residential projects continued to climb in the city over the past month as more home buyers regained their confidence in a gradually recovering market.

A total of 672 units of new apartments, with a price tag of more than 30,000 yuan (US$4,392) per square meter, were sold in the city last month, an increase of 44 percent compared to March, according to the latest research completed by E-House (China) Holdings Ltd.

Maison des artistes, a high-end residential project located in Gubei area, reflected the trend. The project, developed by Hutchison Whampoa, sold 56 units last month, as compared to 46 units in March and 11 units in February.

Regency Park, another luxury residential project in Pudong's Huamu area and developed by the same company, has also registered extremely good recent sales.

E-House statistics showed that 24 townhouses, priced between 13 million yuan and 15 million yuan each, were sold out within three days after the project was launched on April 25.

Meanwhile, the local second-hand market also registered a similar trend, with more contracts involving luxury apartments being concluded during the period.

"More 5 million yuan and above deals were secured last month at our branches, particularly in prime locations such as Xintiandi and Biyun where nearly half of the deals reached last month were in that category,"said Ma Ji, head of research at Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Ltd, which operates the city's largest real estate brokerage chain. "And we expected the strong momentum to ride through May," he said.

Transaction volume of used apartments priced between 30,000 yuan and 40,000 yuan per square meter jumped more than 50 percent in March at Centaline, which runs around 150 branches across the city, according to earlier statistics.

Liu Guang, a Centaline branch manager in Pudong's Biyun area, said home viewing appointments for apartments worth more than 5 million yuan had jumped significantly since the second half of last month after homes priced between 2 million and 3 million yuan were running out of stock following a sales boom in March.