The Ceará property market is moving from strength to strength. Not only has the sector matured and grown stronger, sales of new builds are reportedly brisk. As this latest BRIC Group news piece reports, property in Ceará is moving in the opposite direction to the rest of Brazil.
An exhibition held by a Sao Paulo property developer over a late February weekend proved that sales are buoyant in Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará. The developer Helbor placed 60 units on the Fortaleza property market, all priced in excess of R$300,000 and with financing from the Bradesco bank of 80 per cent.
Within the first 30 minutes of the show opening, R$2 million’s worth of transactions had taken place. Helbor expected to reach their target of R$15 million by the end of the first day with the remaining units sold on the Sunday.
The sale included a range of properties in Fortaleza neighbourhoods. Those in the Papicu district were priced at between R$5,400 and R$6,000 per square metre. The apartments in Coco had slightly higher price tags – from R$6,500 to R$7,500 – and those in Meireles (the district earmarked by Airbnb as one of the hot spots for holiday lets in Fortaleza) cost between R$11,000 and R$13,000 per metre squared.
The organisers had expected big interest in the units, but the actual results were beyond their expectations. Helbor has only been present in the Fortaleza property market for a short period of time, but over the last year the developer has experienced a growth of over 104 per cent.
“The property market in Fortaleza hardly resembles other Brazilian markets at all because you can see that here during seven hours at an event you’ve got queues of people waiting to buy,” said Ricardo Cavalcanti, regional manager in Ceará for Helbor.
The head of the state construction union (Secovi-CE), Sergio Porto agrees with this vision of the Ceará property market. In an interview in March with the local O Povo newspaper, he explains that the market for property in Fortaleza and Ceará is stronger and more solid than it was 10 years ago. He describes it as having ‘muscle’.
“The sector has come out of an excellent 10-year period,” Porto says. “Construction companies and developers are better prepared and there are more of them.”
He adds that he believes it’s a good time to buy property in Ceará because the market has margin for negotiation and he thinks that buyers can take advantage of this. However, he cautions that there isn’t much more room for price drops in the new-build market.
Another area of the Ceará property market currently showing ‘muscle’ is the luxury property sector. A recent survey carried out by a Brazilian property portal revealed that searches for luxury properties in Ceará – those with a price tag in excess of R$1 million – had risen by 92 per cent.
“At BRIC Group we too have noticed the differences between the Ceará property market and that in Brazil generally,” comments Dies Poppeliers, Managing Director of BRIC Group. “The local market has definitely become more consolidated and the inherent demand is pushing it forward at a greater speed than the rest of the country.”
An investment company specialising in global real estate opportunities, BRIC Group is currently developing The Coral resort, in Northeast Brazil, a luxury beachfront resort. BRIC Group also offers US real estate investments including turnkey properties in Florida and Houston, and land plots in Florida. BRIC Group has been creating wealth for its clients since 1996 and has offices in Brazil, Dubai (consulting office), Hungary, Spain and the US.
Source: O Povo
