Transaction volume of existing homes in Shanghai might plunge by around 70 percent in May as buyers continued to haggle with owners for lower prices.

Only about 6,500 transactions might be concluded last month while 20,852 units were sold in April, according to Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Ltd, operator of the city's No. 1 real estate chain.

"We've never seen such widespread wait-and-see sentiment among home buyers in the city's existing housing market," said Ricky Tam, managing director of Shanghai Centaline. "And in almost all cases concluded at Centaline branches in May, home owners agreed to at least a 10 percent discount compared to a month earlier."

Tam predicted that as many as 200 small-sized real estate agencies in the city have closed over the past month due to extremely sluggish momentum in the market.

Johnny Sze, managing director of Shanghai Hanyu Property Consulting Co, another major realty chain operating more than 100 outlets across the city, told China Business News earlier that up to 4,000 agencies in Shanghai may fail to conclude even a "single" deal in May, making an inevitable industry-wide loss.

A similar picture is also seen in the new home market in Shanghai and many other cities across the country after the central government unveiled several tightening measures in mid April, including increased down-payment and higher mortgage rates for second homes.

A latest research released yesterday by China Real Estate Information Corp found that new home transactions in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, plunged more than 86 percent last month from April, the highest among all Chinese cities. Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing suffered a monthly decline of 72 percent, 76.8 percent, 67.3 percent and 67 percent, respectively, during the same period.