Investment in real estate development reached 238 billion yuan ($38.2 billion) in Shanghai in 2012, a 9.7 percent year-on-year increase, according to a Jan 21 report from the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau.

In 2012, newly developed commodity real estate in Shanghai reached 27.2 million square meters, a 25.2 percent year-on-year decrease, among which 15.6 million sq m was for housing, a 36.8 percent year-on-year decrease.

Sales of commodity real estate was 19 million sq m, among which 16 million sq m was for housing.

The average price of newly developed commercial real estate in 2012 was 21,412 yuan per square meter, down 0.8 percent from 2011; the average price of housing apartments was 14,061 yuan, a 3 percent decrease from 2011.

Yan Jun, Chief Economic Engineer with the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau, said the figures show that policies to enhance the welfare of Shanghai's residents have been effective, and measures to control increasing housing prices have worked well.