The market for holiday lets in Brazil might be young but it’s growing fast. The huge success of the recent FIFA World Cup has boosted the demand and supply of holiday lets to unprecedented levels. This surge of interest from both foreigners and Brazilians augers well for the holiday let sector over the next few years.
According to AlugueTemporada, the largest holiday letting portal in Brazil, interest in holiday rentals grew significantly in the months before the World Cup in June. In the first three months of the year, the number of contact messages between owners and holidaymakers grew by a massive 80 per cent with web traffic up by nearly 40 per cent.
The number of properties available for holiday rentals grew correspondingly with Porto Alegre topping the ranking with a spectacular increase of 357 per cent in its supply. Other Brazilian cities showed a more modest increase, albeit still significant. For example, the number of properties available for holiday lets in Fortaleza in northeast Brazil, one of the nation’s favourite holiday destinations, grew by 53 per cent.
Until relatively recently, the holiday letting industry in Brazil was almost non-existent, but in two years online rental portals have more than doubled their portfolios. This tendency is expected to continue as more and more Brazilians discover the advantages of holiday letting over the more traditional hotel option.
According to industry experts, Brazilians who stay in a holiday let report a high level of satisfaction and highly recommend the option to their friends and family. These ‘word of mouth’ recommendations work as very effective publicity for the sector and are behind the recent surge in demand.
Brazilian holidaymakers are discovering that letting a property gives you the chance to soak up the local ambiance better than in a hotel. They’re also finding that holiday rentals provide a better holiday experience for groups and families – group travel is a favoured option for many Brazilians. Plus it’s cheaper to rent somewhere than stay in a hotel and there’s often more choice – in some parts of the country, e.g. the coastal areas of Ceará, accommodation options are limited to a few hotels and budget pousadas.
Brazilian homeowners have also discovered the benefits of holiday rental, particularly those who own properties in the 12 World Cup cities where demand for lets (and prices) boomed during the event. As a result, many Brazilians made huge profits.
As well as prompting a boom in holiday lets, the World Cup has also stimulated interest in Brazilian property from foreigners. The property portal Viva Real reports a significant increase in enquiries in 2014 compared to last year. North Americans showed the biggest increase with nearly half a million visits to the sites, followed by Europeans, namely the Portuguese, Italian, British and French.
Source: AlugueTemporada, Mercados e Eventos, ABECIP-Associacao Brasileira das Entidades de Crédito Inmoniliário e Poupanca
