10 Reasons to Invest in Brazil

Península de Maraú- building site overlooking lake and Cassange Beach

NewswireToday
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
08/23/2007

Brazil Property Group Market Intelligence Update provides 'Ten Top reasons to invest in real estate in Brazil today'......

"Brazil Property continues to be hot, but it has never reached the critical mass to produce rampant growth, as in Costa Rica, Florida or Las Vegas. This is about to change. Brazil for the first time is emerging from a status it hasn’t had since the 1960’s. Growth is picking up, foreign direct investment is up year after year, and the Brazilian stock market is as high as ever.

Reasons why Brazil Property has not increased in value as much as Costa Rica, for example, may be traced to investors' unfamiliarity with Brazil and the Brazilian market. Brazil is still seen as unstable by some, though the truth is the opposite. If you have title insurance buying property in Brazil, safety is not at issue. Once a person owns property State and federal laws makes lawsuits and foreclosures nearly impossible. Another myth is that foreigners cannot own property in Brazil" False. Property in Brazil is freehold. But it is worth being cautious with companies offering options other than freehold ownership or when an accredited title company refuses to issue full title insurance.

For the top ten reasons to buy property in Brazil today....

1/ New mortgage laws:
A. These laws create a better environment for banks to loan money
B. The banks are able to make a safer investment when lending
C. In countries without sustainable mortgage products, there is very little domestic demand for property because purchasers are forced to pay in cash for property. This creates low property prices
D. By the end of 2008, wide-open mortgage packages will be available
E. Right now falling interest rates are making mortgages more common
F. Due to the availability of mortgages domestic demand for property is increasing

2/ New ownership laws protect the buyer:
A. These laws are some of the best in the Americas, designed to make ownership more appealing
B. Ownership is far more secure in Brazil than many other popular Latin American destinations
C. This creates new international demand

3/ Easy access from Europe and North America due to new infrastructure:
A. The Government is supporting tourism projects all across the coast by increasing the availability or utilities and infrastructure
B. Government is financing the renovation of old airports and building new airports to meet the demand
C. The government has come to realize that tourism and property is a new form of economic growth
D. Currently Brazil is the 5th best infrastructure in the Americas
E. Infrastructure and access adds value to property and creates domestic and international demand

4/ Outstanding currency appreciation:
A. Currency appreciation that has taken place with the Brazilian currency is outstanding. In 2002, Brazil’s currency was almost 4 to 1 to the US dollar. Today it is 2 to 1. Its low was approximately 1.85 to 1 dollar July of 2007
B. If a person bought property in 2002, that person would have doubled their money with currency appreciation
C. In April 2007, the Brazilian reserve sat at $101 billion. As Brazil becomes more stable and builds up currency reserves, this appreciation will continue

5/ Undervalued Beach property compared to the rest of the Americas:
A. An acre of Beach Property in Florida goes for $10 million
B. In the Bahamas, an acre in accessible areas sells for $2 million
C. An acre of Beach property in Costa Rica sells for $100,000
D. In Brazil, acres bought in quantity are as low as $5,000 to $15,000 or single acres on the ocean for less than $55,000
E. This creates international demand and domestic demand

6/ Brazil has a large domestic population of almost 200 Million people:
A. This domestic population will embrace credit and mortgages and start buying houses and property
B. This will create domestic demand, demand forces property prices to rise
C. Costa Rica and Nicaragua have populations of roughly 5 million. These countries' real estate booms are not homegrown, but due to international speculation. This situation lacks long-term stability. Why buy a half acre on the ocean in Costa Rica for $1 million when you can buy it in Brazil for $35,000

7/ Currently the 10th largest economy in the world, Brazil will be the 5th largest in 2050 as ranked by Goldman Sachs:
A. When Brazil reaches its paramount in 2050, the beach property prices will be the same anywhere in the world
B. It is expected that beach property will continue to increase in value rapidly until 2050
C. This economic growth and stability creates international demand. It solidifies Brazil as a great place for real estate investors

8/ Pay little, get a lot:
A. In Brazil, construction costs are half what they are in the United States and Europe
B. Currency is also 2 to 1 to the dollar and almost 3 to 1 to the Euro. This money goes a long way on everyday purchases
C. This bonus can lure property buyers seeking an affordable standard of living, will create international demand

9/ Interest rates in Brazil are dropping fast:
A. If you look at rates 18 months ago they were at 18%. Today they are under 12% and falling every few months
B. These rates are falling because Brazil has a huge trade surplus and account balance due to its raw material export driven economy. This surplus has assisted in Brazil have sufficient currency reserves and eliminate deficit spending
C. Further exports of sugarcane ethanol to Japan, United States and Europe will further Brazil’s trade surplus and create a more stable economy allowing for interest rates to fall even lower

10/ Beautiful beaches:
A. Brazil is ranked for having some of the best beaches in the world. They feature white sand, warm water, warm climate and beautiful tall palm trees
B. Brazil has one of the longest tropical coast lines in the world."

The Man Who Loved Islands

Península de Maraú- Islands along the Península on the Bay (photo Alex Uchoa)

D.H. Lawrence's long out-of-print novelette, The Man Who Loved Islands, is a very good read.

It is a metaphor for life, a morality play and a meditation. It may also be Lawrence's thinly veiled attack on a rival.

Contact me at the following address and I'll be glad to send a beautiful, .pdf version:

bob@maraupeninsula.com

Island/Peninsula Nuts

Península de Maraú- the archetypal tropical paradise (photo Alex Uchoa)

"The Man Who Sells Islands", by Ronn Hall, Conde Nast Traveler, July 1997

Interesting article about the 30 year love affair of the world's leading exponent of island living, sales and philosophy- and their kissing cousin peninsulas. Dr. Farhad Vladi has sold over 2000 of them, and owns a few himself.

(Click here)

"A few years ago," says Vladi, "I went through all my old notes and records trying to construct a demographic and psychological profile of island buyers. They seemed to have nothing in common—they were all types, from all age groups and backgrounds except for just one thing: All were very strong individualists, determined to put their own personal stamp on an island."

But of course, most island owners, Vladi says, buy for emotional rather than economic reasons. It's a subject on which he gets unexpectedly mystical: "You can sense the energy of an island as soon as you set foot on it," he says. "Some islands make you feel happy; others, quite the opposite...."

Technology has made it more realistic to live on remote islands. Hence a boom in buying them. Tempted? Dr. Vladi is the man to see, so Ron Hall did. THE MAP ROOM OF DR. FARHAD VLADI'S HEADQUARTERS, overlooking Binnenalster Lake in Hamburg, Germany, is organized with military precision. Mention any of the world's islanded coastlines or ocean archipelagoes and in an instant the correct large-scale map is being opened up for inspection. "Buying and selling islands," says Vladi, "is like planning an invasion."

Beneath the map archive, banks of filing cabinets stretch along the walls. This is the core of the Vladi intelligence system. Each of the world's three thousand or so islands of usable size and in private ownership has its own separate folder. Nothing is too obscure to be squirreled away for future reference: press clippings, historical notes, previous owners, brochures, sales prospectuses, photographs, planning applications, land-register records, tax assessments. "As soon as we get a hint that an island may be coming up for sale," he says, "we can look it up and make an immediate guess at what the market is likely to be."

Vladi flicks open a drawer devoted to France's Brittany coast and walks his fingers along the files. "I sold that island," he says, "and that, and that . . . But this island, Illiec, I would love to have a chance to sell. It's so romantic. In the thirties it belonged to Charles Lindbergh, who had bought it to escape his troubles in America. Charles Heidsieck, of the Champagne family, owns it now. Of course, I don't ask him directly if he wants to sell; he might be offended. But I keep in contact, and we have become good friends."

Vladi has been selling private islands for more than twenty five years. In that time, about five hundred have passed through his hands, some more than once. A handful of other real estate agents deal in islands, but none are so specialized or keep up such an extensive, worldwide network. In this tiny niche of the real estate market, Vladi is king.

He was still a university student, working toward a doctorate in economics, when he made his first deal. "I'd spotted a newspaper item saying that a tropical island in the Indian Ocean had been bought for just two thousand dollars. Nothing! It was this that changed my life. I knew from that moment on that I must have an island for myself."

Vladi wrote to the Seychelles Bulletin to say that he was planning a visit to the Indian Ocean in the hope of buying an island. Most of young Vladi's capital was used just getting to the Seychelles—it was in the days before low-cost air travel, and the Mombasa-to-Bombay steamer was the only way. When he arrived, the cheapest deal he was offered was Cousin Island (now in South African ownership) at an asking price of $100,000, far more than he could afford.

Disappointed, he returned home, where, to cut his losses, he approached a prominent Hamburg businessman to see if he had any interest in buying an island. The man bought Cousin unseen, paid Vladi a five percent commission, and was forever pulling out picture postcards of his island to show to business associates and cocktail party guests. It was the best free promotion young Vladi could have had. Soon he was being barraged with requests from other Hamburg businessmen to find islands for them. There was another bit of luck: The young lawyer whom Vladi had dealt with over the sale of Cousin was James Mancham, who shortly afterward was elected president of the Seychelles. Vladi was well placed to act as broker in the sale of seven of the fifteen private islands there, his first major coup.

The most spectacular of these Indian Ocean sales was to a member of the family of the Shah of Iran, who bought a coconut plantation island named Arros along with the neighboring atoll of St. Joseph in the Amirantes group. The Iranian Prince Sharam built an elaborate house there, along with a landing strip, conveniently within executive-jet range of Teheran. It was to become a valuable hideaway when the imperial family's fortunes collapsed in 1979, and it has since been a productive source of income: When the prince is not in residence, the island is rented out for millionaire holidays at five thousand dollars a night.

Dr. Vladi next turned his attention to Europe, whose Celtic fringe (Scotland, Ireland, and Brittany) is liberally sprinkled with romantic private islands, some grandly surmounted by castles, others devoted to simple farming. Vladi's main problem, in the absence of an open land register, was finding out who owned what. He joined a flying club and persuaded pilots to take him on reconnaissance trips along the coast, looking for islands displaying telltale signs of private ownership—a larger-than-expected house, for instance, or a modern high-tech jetty. Vladi followed up with coastal drives, talking to fishermen and picking up clues. As often as not, once a private owner had been identified, business followed.

During the 1980s, there was rapid growth in the island market. Vladi ascribes this to the reduction in the cost of travel, the increasing desperation to escape mass tourism, and such technological developments as wind and solar generators, satellite telephones, prefabricated and helicopter-transportable buildings, and improvements in water treatment and desalination, all of which have made islands more independent of mainland resources.

As Vladi's business grew, he set up an island-management branch in Nova Scotia, where a profusion of affordable islands has created the world's most active island market. The Bahamas, also with abundant private islands, proved to be another happy hunting ground, along with the South Pacific and, later, Australia and New Zealand. As a service to his clients, he started up an island-renting business, which in turn led to further sales.

For some of Vladi's clients, the pleasure of owning islands became addictive. The keenest buyer of all was a Swiss poultry tycoon named Dieter Kathmann, who, by the time of his accidental death in 1987, had bought no fewer than twelve widely scattered islands. His widow decided to go on adding to the collection, and not wishing to be left holding an unlucky number, bought two islands simultaneously, making fourteen.

Dr. Edward de Bono, the guru of "lateraI thinking," is another serial buyer. He currently owns three islands, all substantial: Green Island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Reklusia in the Bahamas, and Tessera in the Venice iagoon (which now doubles as De Bono's seminar center). "He came to me," says Vladi, "looking for an entirely different kind of island, but when his eyes fell on a photograph of Tessera, he bought it, just like that. I suppose that's what you mean by lateral thinking." Later, De Bono introduced Vladi to a well-to-do woman friend who also bought three islands in different parts of the world—so that she'd have a year-round choice of climate.

Tony Curtis, who already had property on an island—in the mountains near Honolulu decided he would like to have something more exclusively his own. Vladi recently sold him Rocky Island, a simple but dramatic island off Nova Scotia, where he plans to spend his time indulging his other talent, painting. Curtis isn't the only film actor to have become an island addict: John Wayne loved his Panamanian getaway, Taborcillo. After Wayne's death, one of Vladi's first commissions was to sell Taborcillo for Wayne's successors.

"A few years ago," says Vladi, "I went through all my old notes and records trying to construct a demographic and psychological profile of island buyers. They seemed to have nothing in common—they were all types, from all age groups and backgrounds except for just one thing: All were very strong individualists, determined to put their own personal stamp on an island. This leads to a catch-22. The more trouble a seller has taken to develop his island, the less keen anyone else is to buy it. Money spent on development rarely gets a full return."

But of course, most island owners, Vladi says, buy for emotional rather than economic reasons. It's a subject on which he gets unexpectedly mystical: "You can sense the energy of an island as soon as you set foot on it," he says. "Some islands make you feel happy; others, quite the opposite. I remember visiting a tiny island off Arran in Scotland's Firth of Clyde. There was an old farmhouse there, which, as soon as I entered, I wanted to get away from fast. It was only later that I read of a murder said to have taken place there. A man had killed his wife for having borne him six girls when he wanted a son, and then buried her under the kitchen floor. Maybe these things affect others differently. The island was called Eloly Island, and it was eventually bought by Buddhists, who are perfectly happy there, so far as I know."

By now, needless to say, Vladi is himself an island owner several times over. Both Sleepy Cove in Nova Scotia and Forsyth Island in Marlborough Sound, New Zealand, belong to him, and others are held as "inventory" by his company. So where does he go for his own family holidays? The answer is surprisingly ordinary. Maui, he says. This, he goes on hastily to explain, is because his daughter loves Maui so much; they have spent such wonderful times there.

And which island, I ask, would he keep for himself if he could have any in the world and money were no object? Vladi turns over several in his mind. There is Galloo in Lake Ontario, with its six hundred head of deer, dramatic coastline, and rolling countryside laced with small streams. And there's Gallinara, the best placed of all Mediterranean islands, just off Monte Carlo, with Venetian fortifications, an old church, no beach, but a perfect sailing harbor. But the one Vladi really covets is Fregate, one of the Seychelles' granitic islands, with its old plantation house, roaming giant tortoises, rare bird species, and one of the most beautiful beaches in the world (Anse Victorin). It is one of the islands Vladi sold right at the beginning of his career to a young German industrialist who is currently redeveloping it as a small, exclusive resort. Vladi can now only look on in envy.

"Invest in Brazil: Are You Nuts?"

Península de Maraú- Twilight over Lake Cassange (by Alex Uchoa)

(Click here)

Invest in Brazil … Are You Nuts?
3 August 2007

Well no, actually. In 2003, Goldman Sachs selected Brazil, along with Russia, India and China, as one of the four “BRICs”—the developing countries that would share dominance of the world economy by 2050.

Its growth potential should come as little surprise when you consider that the country produces its own oil along with half the world’s exports of ethanol (a valuable additive to motor fuel). It already has the ninth largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power and is on the verge of becoming one of the leading recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America (OECD).

Along with a blossoming economy (the largest in Latin America), the fifth largest country in the world is also benefiting from a dramatic expansion of tourism-related real estate investment. Until relatively recently local banks had not been offering large-scale lending to customers but with the stabilisation of Brazil’s economy they have seen the opportunity for investment. In 2006 property lending doubled in Brazil and the construction industry is booming.

Eight million more homes are needed throughout Brazil, but it’s not just the domestic market that needs to be catered for. Brazil’s tourism sector is rocketing as the country’s many blessings are being counted by an increasing number of visitors to the country. A 134% increase in tourist numbers occurred between 2002 and 2005 and the government – which is keen to see this expansion continue to a high of 9 million annually – is investing heavily in the tourism industry and improving the country’s infrastructure.

Significant government advertising spend focused on tourism has seen an influx of major tour operators and record numbers of international tourists to the region.”

Experience International recently attended the ADIT NORDESTE conference in Salvador, Brazil. ADIT NORDESTE (Association for Real Estate and Tourism Development in the North East) was set up in June 2006 by 40 renowned national and international companies in the fields of tourism and real estate (including the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism) to promote the north east region of Brazil to foreign investors. These companies have projects of various sizes in the fields of tourism and real estate in general amounting to over £1 billion.

One of the aims of the project is to boost the confidence of investors and real estate buyers. The companies that form the association are guaranteeing the legal security of the enterprises, including environmental and ecological zoning. And the area is worth preserving. According to NASA it has the second purest air in the world and along with Antarctica has “the most unspoilt environment on the planet”.

Sunshine, natural beauty and amazing hospitality have transformed Brazil’s north eastern region into one of the most sought after tourist spots on earth and an opportunity to invest in this fast growing area should not be missed.