Coronavirus halts recovery in Brazil real estate market

One of several thriving construction corridors in Brazil's largest city, the bustling activity - together with a long queue of companies seeking IPOs to raise around 10 billion reais ($1.97 billion) - seemed to indicate that the country's long-depressed real estate market was finally back. While work continues at many of those sites on streets suddenly emptied by coronavirus-related quarantine, the dozen planned stock flotations have all been cancelled or postponed. Shares of Mitre Realty Empreendimentos SA, which early in February became the first developer in more than 10 years to list shares on the Sao Paulo stock exchange, have since sunk 43%, even steeper than the 35% drop in the benchmark Bovespa stock index.