Sixteen luxury apartments were sold in the past two weeks in Shanghai's Pudong New Area at what was the Chinese mainland's costliest residential development upon launch, according to the city's housing Website.

The sales spurt is another indication that the property market is heating up, especially for upscale properties.

Tomson Riviera in Pudong's Lujiazui area turned heads at its launch in 2005 when the starting price for one of its apartments was 110,000 yuan (US$16,105) per square meter. But investors didn't seem too impressed as only four apartments were sold in four years.

The 16 units, about 430 square meters each, sold in the past two weeks were on the mid to lower floors of Block C, one of Tomson Riviera's four buildings. The developer launched Block C on June 22 at an average price of 110,000 yuan per square meter although units on the mid to lower floors sell for an average of about 95,000 yuan per square meter.

The developer made Block B available for leasing in August, asking for monthly rentals between 50,000 yuan and 120,000 yuan.

The city's housing market witnessed major signs of a recovery in the second quarter of this year with luxury homes a hot commodity after many buyers were seeking to park their cash in real estate as a hedge against inflation, industry analysts said.

A total of 2,793 units of new homes with a price tag of more than 30,000 yuan per square meter were sold across the city in the first six months of this year at an average price of 41,099 yuan per square meter, compared with 2,403 units in the same period a year earlier, according to Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co.

Last month, sales of new homes with a price above 30,000 yuan per square meter accounted for 7.55 percent of total transactions, an increase of 1.4 percentage points from May, according to the research firm.