WELLINGTON, New Zealand--The coronavirus pandemic slowed New Zealand house sales for a second month in May and prices softened compared with April, real estate industry figures showed. The number of houses sold in May fell nearly 47% from a year earlier to 3,990 but that was still an improvement on April when the strictest level of pandemic lockdown shuttered most businesses and kept people at home. The median house price in May was 620,000 New Zealand dollars ($399,000), an increase of 6.9% from a year earlier but down 8.8% from April, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand said Monday. "We're still seeing a shortage of new listings come to the market which continues to impact sales volumes," the institute said. As of May, the median number of days to sell a property increased to 58 from 41 a year earlier, the longest in 111 months.

Source: Wall Street Journal June 14, 2020 21:33 UTC