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Brazilian middle class 'buy property in Santa Catarina'

Date added: 26th October, 2009 at 11:03
(view all articles from October, 2009)

Categories: Property News, Florianopolis

Brazilian people looking for a second home often buy property in Santa Catarina and the state's capital Florianopolis, an expert has said.

Laercio Souza, coordinator of inward investment at Brazil's Ministry of Tourism, said that property in Florianopolis and Santa Catarina as a whole is particularly popular with residents of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

He explained that the purchase of second homes is a result of the country's growing middle class, which has helped its domestic market to flourish.

The strong consumer market is the best thing about Brazil and helped the country to recover from recession quickly, he added.

Compared to other developing economies, the government had to spend relatively little money on encouraging money to come back into Brazil following the economic crisis.

Saudi Arabia had to commit around 6.8 per cent of its budget to get money back into the domestic market, while Brazil only had to spend 1.2 per cent of its total GDP, Mr Souza said.

"The economic crisis has less of an impact due to the financing structure we have in Brazil," he added.

He said that the Latin American country's middle class makes up 50 per cent of the population and that it has 100 million consumers who are keen to spend their money.

"They are not only the best buyers outside Brazil but they are the best buyers inside Brazil," Mr Souza said.

As well as benefitting from domestic spending, the country has also seen waves of investment flooding in from overseas.

With upcoming events such as the football World Cup and the Olympic Games raising people's awareness of opportunities in Brazil, there has been a rise in the number of British investors increasing their focus on the country.

This is reflected in the number of British tourists who now visit, with more than 181,000 UK sun seekers spending their holidays in Brazil in 2008, according to figures from the tourist board.

Mr Souza added that although the nation's consumers are naturally keen to shop anyway, their commercial nature is encouraged by the government of President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva.

This is because for the first time in the country's history, people are able to take advantage of borrowing from banks, he said.

Brazil's private sector has benefitted from its new-found appetite for consumerism, he explained, as people now have more money to spend than ever before.

Mr Souza continued: "The private sector has become very strong as a result of these changes." ADNFCR-1477-ID-19425794-ADNFCR