Real estate boom in Brazil

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polleke

New Member
Brazil Real Estate: Having a Ball

Real estate loans in Brazil have nearly quadrupled the past three years. And the sector should continue growing at strong levels. Mauro Costa no longer lives in a rented apartment on the periphery of Sao Paulo. He is one of the 204,312 Brazilians who, over the last 12 months, realized their dream of purchasing their own house. The debt he acquired for financing the house will have to be paid off over the next 30 years at an annual interest rate of 12 percent. But Mauro is enormously happy nevertheless. A little more than three years ago, before the Brazilian government changed its regulations for real estate financing, he could not even have imagined holding the keys to his own house in his hands.

REGULATIONS SPUR GROWTH
Mauro’s story provides an example of the new reality that the Brazilian real estate market has been experiencing ever since the middle of 2005. With continued stability and economic growth, the market has recorded positive growth since 2001, according to Abecip (the Brazilian Association of Real Estate and Savings Institutions). Until recently, however, the market lacked regulations that made conditions for purchasing real estate more flexible. These changes were carried out by the government in 2005. Ever since, loan activity in the sector has shot up. In 2004, 53,787 real estate loans were made in the country, according to Abecip. In 2007, that number reached 195,900.
“The changes revolved around real estate guarantees,” says Jose Carlos Oliveira, professor of economics at the Unb (University of Brasilia.) “In past cases of non-compliance, the person responsible for the financing did not recover an adequate amount. Starting with 2005, the government permitted institutions to work with ‘fiduciary alienation,’ an arrangement where the buyer of the property becomes the owner of the property only after he has just paid it off. Although this option creates a highly risky situation for the borrower, it makes it possible for the person who provides the funds to have an additional motivation” because it permits him to recover the property in case of non-payment.
Once the institutions that granted loans had more security, the government could expand the options for obtaining funding. According to the regulations of the Brazilian central bank, 65% of all the government’s savings had to be used to provide housing credits, as specified by conditions set by the SFH (the Housing Financing System, which caps interest rates for acquiring and constructing housing to 12 percent and 13 percent, respectively). The rest of the credits had to be provided at market rates and used for financing residential real estate. “These measures were designed to set up a specific budget from various governmental sources, and they encompass the expansion of credits for the financing of housing and the reduction of taxes on industrial products and a broad range of construction materials,” adds Anita Kon, professor at the PUCSP, the Catholic Pontifical University of São Paulo.
LENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY
Adds Kon: “The private financial sector also implemented measures to provide incentives for increased real estate financing. It lengthened the time periods allowed for financing and made the regulations more flexible for verifying the incomes of borrowers.” Currently, payment conditions are more stable, and financial institutions have reduced the requirements when it comes to providing proof of income. Even self-employed workers and small entrepreneurs can get financing based on conditions offered by the SFH, whose funding is subsidized by the government.
Despite this growth scenario and favorable real estate market conditions, Kon believes that this phenomenon still cannot be defined as a boom. However, Antonio Montes, professor at the Instituto de Empresa in Spain, is much more optimistic. In his opinion, the development of the country has made possible the relocation of the rural population to the big cities. This trend is increasing the demand for housing in the large urban centers. “Brazilians who don’t have housing are thinking of buying rather than renting. In the past, they could not do that because they didn’t have access to credit. This change has produced a democratization of the real estate market,” he says.
However, not every Brazilian social class is equally enjoying the larger housing supply. Kon explains that although the government has dedicated specific funds for the lower and middle classes, the biggest beneficiaries of the real estate boom are upper-middle-class and upper-class buyers. “At this level, the housing supply is very high, which leads to strong competition among sellers and makes business opportunities more flexible. On the other hand, even though there are funds specifically aimed at the lower class, a very large part of the Brazilian population is on the fringe and doesn’t have the buying power to take on these loans.”
One significant factor in this scenario – and the key difference between Brazilian conditions and those in the U.S. -- is that the Brazilian system is growing stronger. The Brazilian middle class is going through a prosperous period, with growing indexes of income and employment. One sign of that is in recent data from the Caixa Economica Federal (CAIXA),a government bank, showing that those people who are younger than 30 accounted for 36 percent of the real estate financing deals provided by that institution in 2007. “What happened in the U.S. will not occur in Brazil, at least not now,” says Oliveira. “In the first place, that’s because the lower and middle-lower classes are not active in this market. And interest rates aren’t so low that they’ve reached the point of stimulating people who don’t have to potential to buy and sell.”
FOREIGN INVESTMENT
Domestic buyers are not the only players in this ongoing festival. Foreign investors, notes Montes, “have become aware that they can continue to expand in countries like Brazil. That’s because of the real estate crisis in the U.S., stagnation in Spain and the general slowdown in all of Europe.” One of those investors is José Antonio Sánchez Santamaría, a Spanish entrepreneur who has begun to construct a 2,000-hectar tourism complex in Natal in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. Known as Grand Natal Golf, the complex’s public faces are Antonio Banderas, the Spanish actor, and Ronaldo, the Brazilian football player.
Santamaría launched his project after building 40 promotional housing units that tested demand from foreign investors. So far, his company has put on sale 90 percent of the area of the Natal tourism complex, where up to 30,000 residential units will be constructed along with five golf courses, various athletic centers and eight hotels. All of this will be managed by an unnamed partner that is a “Brazilian industrial company,” the president of the Sánchez Group told the media at the end of last year.
As Montes explains, “There is a growing demand from people who want to have their second homes in Brazil because it is such an attractive country. It is economically and politically stable, and it is developing important infrastructure projects in its ports, airports, highways and railroads. This fact, along with the current level of international confidence in the country, is attracting a lot of foreign investors.” Every year, an estimated 70 million tourists visit Brazil. About five percent of them want to have a second residence there. In the Northeastern region alone, 80,000 houses and apartments will be built over the next eight years, expressly for foreigners.
VALUE DOUBLED
In that region, notes Montes, property values have more than doubled over the last year. “Add to that, Lula’s 2006 plan that contemplates using up to 32 percent of fiscal surplus for real estate investments. Also, taxes have been reduced on construction materials. Labor is cheap, and interest rates have dropped a great deal, from 25 percent to 12 percent, and they continue to drop. Prospects are very positive.”
Regarding accelerating sales growth in various regions, “This was initially more intense in the region of São Paulo, which is the center of Brazilian development, as well as in Rio de Janeiro,” notes Kon. “Nevertheless, other parts of the center and the Northeastern part of the country are preparing themselves for accelerated real estate sales.” The strong bureaucracy, along with the centralization of decision-making in the Southeast and Southern regions of the country, Kon adds, “have made it more difficult to stimulate the rest of the regions.”
On the other hand, Juan Ignacio Sanz, a professor at ESADE, believes that we can indeed talk about a real estate boom in Brazil. Compared with other alternative investments aimed at Spanish private investors in recent months, such as in Morocco, investing in Brazil is much more attractive because it is typically tropical tourism yet it benefits from the improvements in low-cost communications, he says. From a cultural viewpoint, he adds, “there is greater proximity to Latin America than with African countries, particularly those that are Islamic, which favors longer-term investments in Brazil in contrast to shorter visits in northern African countries.”
CONSOLIDATION PROCESS
According to Montes, prices in the residential and commercial real estate markets are going to shoot up over the next year, “if they continue to reduce interest rates, contain inflation and the growth rate continues to be stable. I think that there can be a significant surge in prices. So you have to take advantage of the investment opportunities now. There are a lot of international real estate funds that have their eye on Brazil. They are anticipating that Brazil will be granted ‘investment grade’ status by risk assessment specialists. That is something that is very likely to happen within a few months.”
At the moment, most of the companies that compete in this market are Brazilian. Montes notes that the sector is consolidating. “When they began to talk about the growth of the sector, many companies wanted to issue shares on the stock market so they could undertake grand projects. The real estate market shot up after that. Some companies took a wallop but others survived. By the end of 2008, we’ll see what the results of the consolidation are.” Montes predicts that the big companies will survive, along with those firms that specialize in one specific sector.
In the current consolidation process, a large number of small construction companies are also growing, and they are confident that they will continue to make money. A quick walk through Sao Paulo, for example, makes it clear to visitors that many real estate projects will come onto the market during the next few years. “The market continues to show strength because the entire process is still very cheap. Land is very cheap in Brazil. Whoever makes an investment on a certain scale in this country will still make a lot of money,” adds Oliveira.
LATIN AMERICAN CONTEXT
In Latin America, notes Montes, three countries are comparable from the viewpoint of real estate – Chile, Mexico and Brazil. These countries are less risky for investors, for a series of different reasons. In Chile, he explains, “The overall population has become wealthier, which means that everyone can acquire housing thanks to political stability. There isn’t much of a market for tourists or foreign investors.”
Mexico is “very similar to Brazil, but it is a lot more influenced by the fact that it is on the border with the U.S.” Montes notes that there are even people who work in the Southern part of the U.S. and have a residence in Mexico because it is cheaper, Mexican taxes are lower and so forth. Mexico also has important tourism centers and large shopping malls, as does Brazil. In those two countries, Montes adds, there are great concentrations of population and cities where security is an elaborate issue, as you can see from walking down the street and looking at the European-style shops. In both countries, U.S.-style shopping malls are popular. On the other hand, he adds, huge companies, such as Spain’s Fadesa, are buying large office buildings in Brazil “because the investment is enormously profitable, on a day-by-day basis.”
Montes notes that foreign investors have also shown a great deal of interest in renovating buildings in Rio de Janeiro. “In some abandoned ships in the port area, for example, companies have converted space into deluxe apartments and shopping malls.” However, he warns people that they “must take along a map from the government or the respective municipality, and the security arrangements must favor foreign investors who want to stay there.” In addition, it is important to note the bureaucratic obstacles that can arise at the last minute.
According Montes, prices will increase at a spectacular rate. “A rental property [that you lease to someone] in Spain provides you with profitability of from 2 percent to 5 percent. In Brazil, you can get three times that much. In addition, according to the Lula plan, the largest airport in Latin America will be built in Natal, which will make that city only six hours from Madrid and five hours from Lisbon. It will have a capacity of about five million passengers.”
THE PROSPECTS

Kon believes that real estate sales in Brazil will continue to grow over the short term, with the country passing through a stage of industrial acceleration, especially when it comes to building materials. This will have a considerable multiplier effect on employment and income.
Nevertheless, Kon notes, “in the medium and long term, this movement is not sustainable since the supply of real estate for the medium and upper classes is growing in a way that exceeds demand.” Over the medium and long term, “there is a major chance that the net assets of the less privileged classes will decline since there is a need to give priority to other basic infrastructure projects and to other social problems, such as education and health projects, that support development.”
Montes is much more optimistic. For him, the major risk revolves around knowing whether the Lula government will continue all the structural reforms that it has initiated and still has in the works, as well as whether it is able to battle against corruption and the shortage of security. Another danger is the energy crisis, which could affect the domestic market.
Oliveira notes that the Brazilian government is working hard to create fewer barriers to investing in the manufacturing sector, and to make it easier for foreigners to enter the Brazilian market. According to Oliveira, these types of investment will make it more attractive for foreign investors to come back to the market, as positive conditions in the country reduce the risk of massive capital flight. “The government is working on regulations that do not restrict foreign investment in liquid assets, but which provide incentives for investing in real assets both in the manufacturing sector as well as civil construction. These regulations should not be extremely rigid, or they will alienate investors. They should help avoid volatility.”

Source : latinbusinesschronicle 14/03/2008
 
I

Investy

Senior Member
With a vast coastline and loads of development it is hard to pick a winner as over - supply is likely to keep price growth in check.
I would study which parts of Florida, the Bahamas and Caribean turned out best and to apply lessons learned to Brazil.
 
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polleke

New Member
Invest in Brazil

With a vast coastline and loads of development it is hard to pick a winner as over - supply is likely to keep price growth in check.
I would study which parts of Florida, the Bahamas and Caribean turned out best and to apply lessons learned to Brazil.
Investment is not only about rental potential. We invest in commercial real estate in Sao Paulo. The demand for premium office space in Sao Paulo is very high. We buy off plan and sell before termination of the building. Together with some Dutch and Belgian Investors we have about 4 years of experience in Brazil. But what we see the last months exceeds our expectations. We even opened a real estate company in Sao Paulo especially for this purpose. ( active-invest).

Leon
 
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polleke

New Member
Buying Real Estate in Brazil

how i can purchase the property in brazil please me the detail

The only formal demand to buy real estate in Brazil for foreigners is the CPF number (Taxes Holder number). The process to obtain such a number is very simple and fast. The only documents you will need are your passport and an Official document that shows your parents names such as your birth certificated. As in all countries you buy it is wise to consult an English speaking lawyer and a good real estate office. Especially for this purpose we opened our own office in Sao Paulo (active-invest).

Leon
 
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loai

New Member
I heard from a friend that just came back from there and he said it was still..
 
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MovingSoon

New Member
My wife and I (she is Brazilian, I'm American) have been buying in Brazil for a few years -flipping and also keeping some for rentals. (specifically around Rio)
I look at the Brazilian market much like the US market was back in the 50's - in fact I think the entire economy is much the same. It will certainly never equal the US in so many ways, but I'm speaking about the opportunities.

Lots of opportunities...but buyer beware. Documentation is a headache...but bargains are there if you have patience...
 
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robh

Administrator
Staff member
Premium Member
still booming in 2009 or what's going on there?
It is definitely still booming. Purchases by overseas buyers have gone down (no surprise there),but local sales are the same as ever.
 
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tomas123

New Member
Is this a good idea

Should we try to invest our money in Brazil? Or should we wait with our pounds in the bank until the british pound raises again?
 
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Ruban

New Member
Just wanted to bump this thread for further discussion. I am a UK investor/developer that has been looking at Brazil for the last couple of years.

I've been in the south over here for about 10 weeks. I originally started in Florianopolis (Santa Catarina). I have a few contacts over there and used the trip to enjoy the region and see what potential opportunities there were. From what I could see, the market was fairly stagnant - a number of developers were withdrawing projects and there seemed to be an over-supply of apartments (but it was off peak season).

I am now in Rio (Zona Sul) and have been speaking mainly to agents and local homeowners throughout RJ state. Now I have only been here for a month, so I am far from an expert, but here are things from how I can see it:
- a lot of Cariocas are looking to sell at the moment (money is better kept in the banks rather than property);
- there is talk of a peak in the market due to a large amount of foreign investment in the country (unnattractive returns in other countries, World Cup 2014);
- over-inflated prices due to the governments Minha Casa Minha Vida programme meaning that people are not negotiating hard enough as the package is so good;
- one Brazilian told me that there is usually a dip in house prices around general election time (2010) so I should wait until then before doing anything

Of course, all the above maybe simple here-say and local markets would probably differ. Indeed, there are a number of factors such as the general populations dislike of debt (particularly sub-prime) and the undeveloped mortgage market which keeps Brazil as an investment region well-worth keeping a close eye on.

I would like to hear forum users thoughts on the Brazilian market at the moment and for the medium-long term. Nobody wants to be a speculator and, personally speaking, I would like to base any decisions on cold hard facts (as I'm sure many people here do too).

Looking forward to discussing this...
 
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robh

Administrator
Staff member
Premium Member
Just wanted to bump this thread for further discussion. I am a UK investor/developer that has been looking at Brazil for the last couple of years.

I've been in the south over here for about 10 weeks. I originally started in Florianopolis (Santa Catarina). I have a few contacts over there and used the trip to enjoy the region and see what potential opportunities there were. From what I could see, the market was fairly stagnant - a number of developers were withdrawing projects and there seemed to be an over-supply of apartments (but it was off peak season).

I am now in Rio (Zona Sul) and have been speaking mainly to agents and local homeowners throughout RJ state. Now I have only been here for a month, so I am far from an expert, but here are things from how I can see it:
- a lot of Cariocas are looking to sell at the moment (money is better kept in the banks rather than property);
- there is talk of a peak in the market due to a large amount of foreign investment in the country (unnattractive returns in other countries, World Cup 2014);
- over-inflated prices due to the governments Minha Casa Minha Vida programme meaning that people are not negotiating hard enough as the package is so good;
- one Brazilian told me that there is usually a dip in house prices around general election time (2010) so I should wait until then before doing anything

Of course, all the above maybe simple here-say and local markets would probably differ. Indeed, there are a number of factors such as the general populations dislike of debt (particularly sub-prime) and the undeveloped mortgage market which keeps Brazil as an investment region well-worth keeping a close eye on.

I would like to hear forum users thoughts on the Brazilian market at the moment and for the medium-long term. Nobody wants to be a speculator and, personally speaking, I would like to base any decisions on cold hard facts (as I'm sure many people here do too).

Looking forward to discussing this...
Ruben, What sort of development do you do, I would have thought a developer would be right in to the market as it currently stands, so I am surprised you are so negative about the market.

Regards,
Rob
 
J

JMBroad

New Member
Just wanted to bump this thread for further discussion. I am a UK investor/developer that has been looking at Brazil for the last couple of years.

I've been in the south over here for about 10 weeks. I originally started in Florianopolis (Santa Catarina). I have a few contacts over there and used the trip to enjoy the region and see what potential opportunities there were. From what I could see, the market was fairly stagnant - a number of developers were withdrawing projects and there seemed to be an over-supply of apartments (but it was off peak season).

I am now in Rio (Zona Sul) and have been speaking mainly to agents and local homeowners throughout RJ state. Now I have only been here for a month, so I am far from an expert, but here are things from how I can see it:
- a lot of Cariocas are looking to sell at the moment (money is better kept in the banks rather than property);
- there is talk of a peak in the market due to a large amount of foreign investment in the country (unnattractive returns in other countries, World Cup 2014);
- over-inflated prices due to the governments Minha Casa Minha Vida programme meaning that people are not negotiating hard enough as the package is so good;
- one Brazilian told me that there is usually a dip in house prices around general election time (2010) so I should wait until then before doing anything

Of course, all the above maybe simple here-say and local markets would probably differ. Indeed, there are a number of factors such as the general populations dislike of debt (particularly sub-prime) and the undeveloped mortgage market which keeps Brazil as an investment region well-worth keeping a close eye on.

I would like to hear forum users thoughts on the Brazilian market at the moment and for the medium-long term. Nobody wants to be a speculator and, personally speaking, I would like to base any decisions on cold hard facts (as I'm sure many people here do too).

Looking forward to discussing this...
Posted in response to the same post from you in the Brazil forums (I did some tidying up to better get my meaning across):

It is hard to get an idea of the market "in Brazil" as such as the country is so vast and the regions are so different one from another. The country has an 8 million housing deficit but where exactly are those millions located? On top of that figure, the government body responsible for the housing market has also declared that they consider as much as 30% of the existing housing in the northeast unfit and in need of replacing. Travelling around the northeast it's not hard to figure out why - 10 minutes out of the state capital and you'll notice most of the houses are mainly "mud huts".

However you have been misinformed on a few crucial pieces of information...

- a lot of Cariocas are looking to sell at the moment (money is better kept in the banks rather than property);

This seems very unlikely given that there was new legislation put in place about three months ago according to which any Brazilian national (private person not company) who has over R$ 50.000,00 in a savings account will be taxed on the surplus. This has made more people look at investing their money outside of banks (including into real estate). These Cariocas you spoke to would be the first people I've heard of who decided to keep their money in banks after this news was released (about three months ago if memory serves me).

-there is talk of a peak in the market due to a large amount of foreign investment in the country (unnattractive returns in other countries, World Cup 2014);

Not sure if I understand correctly - Brazil has reached a peak because other countries offer unnatractive returns and because of the World Cup 2014? If anything those are just two of the facts which make Brazilian real estate market even more attractive?

- over-inflated prices due to the governments 'Minha Casa Minha Vida' programme meaning that people are not negotiating hard enough as the package is so good;

I guess it depends on the point of view. Earlier, low income Brazilian families would never have been able to afford houses like the ones they are now buying - so yes, they are just buying them without negotiating however "over-inflated" prices would indicate to me that either the prices are more than people want to pay for them or that they could buy them cheaper. In reality they are buying them faster than they can be built which would indicate that they are happy with the prices. Now I can only use my personal frame of reference which is the medium and low-income residential market of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte but here the prices are very attractive and selling quickly.

- one Brazilian told me that there is usually a dip in house prices around general election time (2010) so I should wait until then before doing anything;

I'm not sure that this will be the case again next year - the Brazilian government has been stable now for many years so I doubt there is the same incertainty around election time as there was 15 or 20 years ago for example. The next elections are held at the end of 2010 and elect the government for 2011 so you are talking about waiting another year. 2012 is when many of the infrastructure requirements for the FIFA 2014 have to be in place so it's a question of deciding which is more likely to impact the market more - the elections or the world cup (assuming the elections will affect property prices at all).

- the country has witnessed a housing boom period for some time now and many Brazilians feel that house prices remain out their budgets (considering wage levels and income)

Depends greatly on the area - although prices have risen in many areas there are many other areas (and market segments like low-cost housing) which haven't seen such a strong increase and still have room for growth. More importantly, the government programme you mentioned earlier "Minha Casa Minha Vida" has made houses affordable to the general population for the first time ever... If anything for the first time in the history of the country almost anyone can find a house to fit their budget.

Ultimately - while I differ in opinion regarding to the information you've been given - it may well be because I'm based in the Northeast (Natal) and your information came from the south or it may be the fact that the company I work for has a unique investment strategy which (so far) has served us very well. Despite my more positive outlook I don't believe Brazil is going through a property Boom in the sense that most speculators would relate to.

Yes there have been micro-booms in certain cities and regions which have led to incredibly inflated prices in some areas but that has been because investors have fed speculation of the kind they have been accustomed to in other parts of the world.

Brazil is not a Dubai, Costa del Sol or Black Sea Coast - the houses are not being built for tourists - the thrust is coming from below - from the low and middle income population. Brazil is a unique country with unique characteristics and I believe what Brazil is experiencing is a sustainable, strong and steady growth which will last for many years to come. You just need to find the right product to invest in.

This is of course my opinion based on my experiences working with and living in Brazil. As far as the market segments we are focusing on in the area we work (Natal) - we are building as fast as we can and we can't even get close to keeping up with the demand. We currently have 2 developments sold and delivered, 1 where construction finishes in six months +/- and which is 95% sold, 1 which starts construction next month and pre-launch reservations already account for around 40% of the development and 3 other residential developments in licensing (to a total of around 2000 units). We are also developing 3 commercial projects which are in different stages of licensing.

Is Brazil the place to invest? Yes.
Do you have to chose the right partner and the right product? Yes.
Is it a safe place to invest? Yes, provided you follow the basic steps (see the Brazil thread called "Absolute Basics"
Is the real estate market showing strong and sustainable growth? Yes
Is there a Boom in Brazil? Not in the sense that people tend to think of bubbles.
 
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JMBroad

New Member
If you are looking for a pure investment property then look at the medium-low income market in a city where there is a huge demand from the local market - try and find out as much as you can about the "Minha Casa Minha Vida" social programme launched by the government earlier this year.

Natal is one of the many cities that has such a demand and is also seeing a large increase in domestic tourism - hopes are that International tourism will also increase significantly with the construction of the new airport (which has to be operational by 2012 for Natal to keep its place as a host city for the 2014 Fifa world cup).
 
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JMBroad

New Member
Brazil defeats the recession:

Not even the proverbial optimism of the Brazilian President Lula Inácio da Silva was able to predict such a fast recovery from the world financial crisis. In the month of August alone, 242.126 new jobs were created. This is the best result in the past 17 years, according to the data of the Ministry of Labour.

Between January and August, still in the middle of the crisis, Brazil created 680.034 permanent work positions and with the growth of GDP by 1.9 % in the second quarter of 2009, Brazil ends the technical recession in which it had found itself during the last quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009. Inflation remains at 4.4% in September, lower than the central bank’s 2009 inflation target of 4.5%

Contrary to what was happening throughout the rest of the world, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) increased in Brazil in 2008 by 30.3% compared to 2007. The country jumped four places securing for itself 10th place in the world ranking, becoming the most international of the BRIC economies. In comparison, last year the global volume of FDI dropped by 14.2%, in developed economies it dropped by 29.2%, in developing economies it grew on average by 17.3% and in Latin American economies FDI grew by an average of 13.2%.

With regards to the BRIC economies, Russia has traditionally led the ratio between FDI and GDP however in 2008 while Russia received 12.7% of GDP in FDI, Brazil received a staggering 18.3% - India received 9.9% and China received 8.7%. Some even estimate that Brazil may reach the 4th Global position by 2011.

The recovery of the Brazilian economy has however made the lack of qualified labour more pronounced. Despite unemployment in the country, qualified labour is lacking in strategically important sectors such as Petrol and Gas, Civil Engineering and Agribusiness. Due to the demand for social housing generated by the “Minha Casa Minha Vida” plan, there is a greater lack of qualified labour in the construction sector at all levels. Because of the lack of supply of qualified labour, the value of qualified workers has increased significantly, raising the income of the construction workers. More and more workers are leaving low paid jobs to work in construction – where they can earn almost double the minimum national salary.

Last month in August, 45 thousand new jobs were created in the Civil Engineering sector alone, bringing the total new jobs created in the sector since December 2008 to 176 thousand, which means that not only have the 109 thousand jobs lost during the recession been recovered, but the highest employment records of last year have also already been surpassed.

During this Christmas period, shopping centres are set to recruit over 130 thousand extra employees, 30% more than the same period in 2008. The optimism of the shopkeepers is due to the improving credit conditions and the strong consumer confidence in the country. 26 new shopping centres will open by the Christmas period and at least 29 others have been through renovations which have expanded their capacity.

The recent Real Estate Fair, held in Sao Paulo, saw over R$ 300 mm granted in real estate financing over the four days which the show ran. Of the 100 thousand properties on offer at the real estate fair, over 48% were aimed at the “Minha Casa Minha Vida” segment. The demand for medium and high end properties also surprised many people – “Such a high demand for mortgages to purchase properties up to R$ 500 thousand was not expected” said the manager of “Nossa Caixa”. The bank gave out R$ 53 mm in loans.

Faced with this new panorama, Lula has confidently announced “While the whole world is suffering from unemployment, Brazil will reach the end of the year with over one million new jobs having been created”. Amongst these new jobs being created is the real estate market, as Lula’s plan is to create one million new social housing homes during 2010, the last year of his Presidential tenure.
The recovery of employment and the expansion of credit by the Bank of Brasil who has officially stated that Brazil is out of Recession, are not the only economic and financial indicators that the country has resumed economic stability. The Sao Paulo stock market is on a high and the Real is stronger than ever.

All of the above has lead to even the most critical of people to recognize that Brazil has miraculously not only managed to come out of the crisis unscathed but has also resumed growth faster than anyone could have predicted.

Sources:
BBC NEWS | Business | Brazil's economy leaves recession (BBC - 11.09.2009)
Brasil derrota a la crisis (El País – 18.09.2009)
O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, 18th September 2009, Page B16 – Business section
O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, 27th September 2009, Page B10 - Economy
O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, 28th September 2009, Page B6 – Economy
O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, 30th September 2009, Page B7 - Economy
 
J

JMBroad

New Member
You are very welcome. Of course since my last post Rio de Janeiro has now been confirmed as the destination for the 2016 Olympic games and Brazil has officially become a creditor to the IMF, having not only paid off it's 33.9 billion US$ debt but also having purchased bonds worth 10 billion US$ (so in five years the relationship between Brazil and the Inrnational Monetary Fund went from a debtor to creditor)
 
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Jamie Mac

New Member
Living here in Brazil (Ceara) for 5 years now I've seen allot of people come and go - the ones that made the choice to invest back then have big smiles there faces... the people that held off back then are scrambling to find beach front land up here. Jamie
 
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Jamie Mac

New Member
Around Fortaleza City you have allot of opportunities available for all levels of investors, for rental units, landbanking, projects - its a hot bed right now and with the industrial development and investments along with the 2014 football and Olympics in 2016 Brazil is going up...
 
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