According to GoldenTree InSite Partners, a New York-based real estate private equity investment company, the Brazilian real estate is booming again after fizzling at the end of last year, as sales have rebounded in one of the best emerging markets. Launched two weeks ago, a 104-unit residential project aimed to middle-income families in Vila Carrão, in the outskirts of São Paulo, is a perfect example, pointed out Mr. Thomas Shapiro, president of GoldenTree InSite Partners. “We sold every unit in four hours”, Shapiro said, adding that his company has recently raised an extra $500 million to invest in Brazil. ”Brazilian real estate market indeed took a dip in the fourth quarter but has now gone up “substantially”, added Shaphiro.
Brazil has kept a low profile internationally in the past few months, he added. That was good for GoldenTree InSite to search for good investment opportunities, as local listed real estate companies were suffering with the stock market debacle.
Very few funds were raised for Brazil because they forgot the ‘B’ from the BRIC countries,” Shapiro said, adding that the bulk of the available money went to India and China. “It was hard to find something with good fundamentals that was not outflown with capital,” he said. Shapiro said the fundamentals of the Brazilian economy looked better than expected for the year ahead and a stimulus package from the government has helped the real estate market heat up.
He discarded signs of a real estate bubble forming in Brazil, like the one that hit countries like the U.S. and Spain, according to GoldenTree InSite executive. “Brazil was never leveraged,” he said, adding mortgages represent only 2 percent of gross domestic product. “It could happen in the future, but I don’t see it happening today”, Shapiro said. That’s particularly true for the residential market, he said, in a country with an 8-million housing unit deficit. “Buyers of these units are not speculators,” he said.
In Fortaleza we have already been approached by US investors looking to construct so called “casas populares” popular homes. In general northeastern Brazil is growing and there is a huge demand for housing especially for the growing middle class. A Danish company is already acting in Fortaleza constructing houses and apartments for the middle class.
Fortaleza Real Estate – Property in Fortaleza Brazil