NEW home sales fell in Shanghai last week, partly due to the May Day holiday, while average prices remained little changed.

Purchases of new homes, excluding government-funded affordable housing, dropped 29.2 percent to 168,300 square meters during the seven-day period which ended on Sunday, according to a report by Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co.

The average cost of new homes, meanwhile, dropped 1 percent compared to the previous week to 23,274 yuan (US$3,742) per square meter.

"While the holiday was one of the reasons behind the decline, the rather significant drop also indicated a further cooldown of the local market following an extremely hectic March," said Huang Zhijian, chief analyst at Uwin.

On the supply side, more than 276,000 square meters of new houses were released to the local market last week, up 68.2 percent from the previous seven-day period, according to Uwin data.