Several luxury residential projects in Shenzhen sold out quickly in May, with young elites from the semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors replacing traditional tycoons as the most avid buyers.

Post-90s buyers, mainly technology professionals, accounted for 31 per cent of transactions for luxury homes over 10 million yuan (US$1.48 million) in the southern tech hub last year, according to Leyoujia, a research institute in Shenzhen. Members of the same generation – named for the decade of birth – bought 70 per cent of the homes in certain upscale residential projects, said developers and sales staff.

Sino Bay, a high-end development by Citic Urban Development & Operation, offered 78 sea-view luxury flats of 302 square metres (3,251 sq ft) on May 23, and all sold out within half an hour. The registered prices ranged from 50 million yuan to 77 million yuan, with the average topping 208,000 yuan per square metre, according to the developer. A 510 square metre, top-floor home sold for more than 200 million yuan or 398,600 yuan per square metre.

“Shenzhen’s rebounding luxury housing, with many projects boasting office-style designs and premium quality, acts as a leading sign of improving market confidence,” said Yan Yuejin, vice-president of E-house China Research and Development Institute.

“High-income post-90s tech professionals respond quickly to policies and enter the market. Boosted by a strong tech stock rally led by AI and semiconductors, their wealth and purchasing power have risen.”

Yet sales growth was limited to premium properties in core areas, and the market remained highly fragmented, Yan added.

In May, prices of new homes in Shenzhen rose 0.4 per cent from a month earlier, the biggest increase among first-tier cities, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.