On the "Is Beach Park, Isn't Beach Park the best beach to invest in" topic, it depends. Beach Park will become a very developed area, but I can only see the bad design and layout continuing. I envisage something of a Costa Del Sol, concrete jungle atmosphere... and I think that's the first time I've ever used the word atmosphere in conjunction with Porto Da Dunas (Beach Park). Yeah, yeah, Beach Park itself puts on some really nice gig/party/events, but the town has no centre, no heart, no soul no.... atmosphere. Plus, have you ever tried to get from Porto Da Dunas to Fortaleza late on a Sunday, I once tried it in peak season and it took 1.5 hours just to get to the main road (Washington Soares). One and a half hours, 12km!!! Most of the people at Porto Da Dunas are day trippers (and especially on the weekend) from Fortaleza. They aren't tourists.
On the other side of Fortaleza, some one said earlier in the thread that they thought prices there were stagnant. This is currently true, and I think it's been that way for the past 18 months. As the other person said, foreign investment by property speculators drove the prices there up over the previous 6 or 7 years, and at present it's topped out. Vila Gale have started building their 5 Star resort/Golf Course and Spa just down the beach and are hoping to encourage (ie sell land) to other resort companies to create a luxury resort hub. When Vila Gale gets closer to completion of stage 1, then prices in Cumbuco should start rise again along with demand. This will be further facilitated if the proposed plans for redeveloping the central beach front strip with a promenade and retail units comes to fruition. This should stimulate development and improvement to the rest of the village centre. The fact that Cumbuco has a village centre, all be it a fairly run down an unattractive one will be for many investors a massive advantage over PDD. There are already bar and restaurants all conveniently located in the centre making it easy to walk from your house/hotel to a restaurant for dinner, on to a bar for drinks then back home. Where as PDD is all over the place and will "probably" remain so.
Cumbuco does have one little mentioned achilles heels though, one that only those that live here are really aware of, although seldom talk about. Coastal erosion! In the two year I've lived here I've seen the high water mark move at alarming pace up the beach. This is mainly due to sea defences that went in close to Fortaleza, this eems to have accelerated erosion down current. Several beach bars and restaurants in Icarai are in peril of being washed away, in fact, some already have. When I take the dog for a walk along the beach I can't help but notice those houses which will soon have to consider taking measures to prevent their gardens being annexed by the Atlantic Ocean.
Taiba's greatest attractions are that it is a quite and picturesque village, more so than Cumbuco and it's much cheaper too. It has atmosphere, a genuine feeling of being a cosy village. It also benifits from the Vila Gale development. The hope is that the developments in Taiba and Nova Taiba will bring in the punters and stimulate the growth of business in the village without it losing it's charm. Taiba has one of the best and least violent of Carnivals in the area, a well celebrate culinary festival and is attracting a lot of artsy, creative types, just the right type to stimulate development of classy boutique shops rather than tacky souvenir emporiums. Perhaps in 5-10 years Taiba will become the Pipa of Ceara. Perhaps!?
On the negative side, Taiba does have to contend with the massive investment by Ceara in the container port and Petrobras in the oil terminal in Pecem. There are other proposed investments in Pecem which could have negative effects locally, one being the early discussions into an airport (for freight not tourists) to leverage the Port and turn Pecem into a major logistics centre for Brazil. The other thing (which personally I welcome but I know some people hate) is the proliferation of wind turbines. The new ones along the coast to Paracuru are going in nicely as are the ones on the dunes which overshadow Taiba.
Basically, both sides have there pluses and their minuses. PDD/Beach Park will appeal to those looking for a very commercial looking and feeling property investment with little regard for a sense of community. Cumbuco, Taiba and any number of other beach villages in Ceara provide an alternative to those who are concrete jungle phobic.