SHANGHAI'S existing housing index fell in October for the first time in 13 months, with the majority of home owners still reluctant to offer price discounts.

The index, which monitors price fluctuations of the city's previously occupied homes, lost 3 points, or 0.12 percent, from a month earlier to 2,597, halting a rally since September 2010, the Shanghai Existing House Index Office said yesterday.

"Though the index finally fell after gaining for 12 consecutive months, there are still no signs of notable price cuts at the moment despite an extremely sluggish sentiment," said Zhang Shu, an analyst at the index office. "Discounts of between 5 and 10 percent are offered by a limited number of local home sellers."

The prices of existing homes in prime sites, including the four downtown districts in Puxi and Lujiazui in Pudong New Area, dipped 0.03 percent on average in October.

The office said prices in 69 of 128 areas it tracked fell 0.24 percent on average last month while seven areas saw a gain of 0.28 percent on average. In the remaining 52 areas, prices were flat from September.

A separate research released yesterday by Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Ltd also showed a wide gulf between owners and buyers over future home prices, affecting sales last month.

The nearly 300 branches of Centaline saw sale contracts involving existing homes drop 30 percent last month from September, with those costing between 2 million yuan and 3 million yuan (US$474,000) plunging the most at 50 percent from a month earlier.

Song Huiyong, research director at Centaline Property, said: "Most home seekers are now expecting a discount of between 10 percent and 20 percent."