简体中文
One upscale home in Rio de Janeiro, just 23 kilometers from the city’s downtown, has been on the market for more than two years.
The
four bedroom house, fully furnishedwith a pool overlooking the
Atlantic Ocean,belongs to a Frenchman who reduced the price from the
equivalent of $2 million to about $1.3 million.
“The
market is in crisis, everything stopped, stagnated, so we are offering
it for some 30 percent less than the market price and, for what I have
seen, it is unbeatable,” property manager Tatiana Ortenzi said.
The
house is listed by a luxury real estate agency, whose founder is trying
to make the most out of a distressed market – calling on investors to
recognize the opportunities a buyer's market presents.
“So when you take in consideration the fact that the
price drops, the exchange rate and also next year probably the tax on
transaction will get higher I think it is a very good time to buy now in
Rio,” real estate agent Frederic Cockenpot said.
But
it’s not just luxury home prices that are falling. According to Rio de
Janeiro’s Realtors association, there are more than 40,000 empty
properties in the city, waiting for buyers.
That’s
certainly evident in Rio’s famous Copacabana neighborhood, where dozens
of “for sale” and “rent” signs can be seen up and down most streets.
“After
2015, prices went down in Brazil more or less 10 percent, and in Rio
between 15 and 20 percent,” said Leonardo Schneider, vice president of
Secovi, Rio’s biggest realtors association. “Why is Rio suffering more?
Because in Rio de Janeiro, we had a huge expectation because of the
summer Olympic Games.”
What real estate agents did
not predict was Brazil’s deepest and longest recession on record. Now,
they’re hoping bargain-hunters will keep the industry afloat as they
cash in on once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to own dream homes in Rio.
