MIAMI – Sept. 6, 2016 – Seeking an alternative to their country’s increasingly risky real estate market, Brazilian investors have been returning to Florida to invest in residential property and establish a source of income in dollars.
A second home in Miami has been an especially popular option for decades for Brazil’s upper class. Today, new options are becoming available to help such investors hedge currency risk and take advantage of better conditions than they are experiencing at home.
In Brazil, the economic crisis and rising unemployment have sent rents down more than 5 percent in the last year. By contrast, rents in Miami were stable during this year’s first and second quarters, reports Integra Realty Resources.
TRX Residential is among the firms looking for rich Brazilian individual investors to help it nearly double its $140 million portfolio of residential rental units in the U.S.
The American market has definitely shown resilience. Demand for apartments has been boosted over the last decade or so by former homeowners who lost their houses when the real estate bubble burst and by millennials more inclined to rent than buy, observes Ryan Severino, chief economist at Reis Inc.
Brazilians ranked third among foreigners searching for South Florida real estate during June, according to the Miami Association of Realtors, trailing only Colombians and Venezuelans. Brazil had dropped as low as fifth place earlier in the year in the association’s monthly rankings after routinely leading the list from late 2014 through the end of 2015.
Source: Bloomberg (09/06/16) Moura, Fabiola
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-06/miami-real-estate-is-back-in-the-sights-of-brazilian-investors