(Yicai) Aug. 5 -- Second-hand luxury home sales in Shenzhen reached a six-year high last month, lifted by tech elites aiming to improve their houses after a surge in personal wealth and buyers from other cities.

Sales of pre-owned homes worth over CNY15 million (USD2.2 million) in Shenzhen surged 11 percent last month from a year earlier, according to monitoring data from the Shenzhen Ke Research Institute. Overall sales of second-hand houses reached 4,795, down 6 percent from June but up 3 percent year on year, data from the Leyoujia Research Center showed.

Some 3,529 new homes were sold in the city last month, a 7 percent month-on-month drop but a 33 percent surge from a year ago, according to data from the Shenzhen Real Estate Information Platform.

The average price of second-hand luxury houses in Shenzhen shows a very clear upward trend in the long term, especially after the city eased some real estate policies, Xiao Xiaoping, director of the Shenzhen Ke Research Institute, told Yicai. Not only is the replacement demand from high-net-worth families being released, but the number of properties bought by investors from outside the city is also increasing, leading to a continuous rise in luxury sales in core urban areas, Xiao noted.

The average price of resold homes worth more than CNY10 million was CNY101,504 (USD15,045) per square meter in July, up 5.7 percent from the previous month and 8.4 percent from a year ago, according to the Shenzhen Ke Research Institute.

In comparison, the overall average price of second-hand homes was CNY60,000 (USD8,895) per sqm, dropping for the first time in three months but still climbing 1.2 percent year over year, said the Leyoujia Research Center data.

Medium-to-high-end buyers with home improvement needs in Shenzhen's real estate market are mainly new tech elites who see a rapid increase in personal assets, turning them into key supporting forces for the vitality of the market, according to a report from the Leyoujia Research Center.

The real estate market in Shenzhen features developers daring to compete to buy land, buyers willing to buy houses, and more new projects ready to enter the market in the future, so the recovery in the off-season is likely to continue until the mid to late third quarter, the Shenzhen Real Estate Intermediary Association pointed out.

Thirty real estate projects with 7,212 units will enter the city's market this quarter, with most entering this month and the next, the association said, noting that new home sales will likely continue to increase.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev