By Nelson Belen, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to the latest FipeZAP Brazil Residential Sales Index, which tracks residential real estate prices in the country’s twenty biggest cities, prices in Brazil’s residential sales sector remained relatively stable in October showing a nominal decrease of -0.06 percent.
However, October’s -0.06 percent variation fell below the rate of inflation for the period of 0.55 percent, as measured by the IPCA/IBGE (National Consumer Price Index/Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).
According to FipeZAP, none of the cities that registered increases in October were able to outpace the IPCA/IBGE inflation rate.
In addition, only seven of the twenty cities in the survey showed increases in October greater than 0.10 percent: Curitiba (0.47 percent), Salvador (0.37 percent), Vitória (0.37 percent), Santos (0.24 percent), Santo André (0.24 percent), Goiânia (0.22 percent), and Florianópolis (0.18 percent).
Among the cities that showed declines in residential sale prices from September to October, the biggest drops were seen in Fortaleza (-0.59 percent), Niterói (-0.40 percent), Rio de Janeiro (-0.27 percent), and Porto Alegre (-0.26 percent).
Despite another month of declines, Rio de Janeiro registered the highest average residential real estate sale prices in the country in October. Last month, the Cidade Maravilhosa had an average listing price of R$9,435 per square meter.
Trailing Rio de Janeiro was São Paulo, which had an average listing price per square meter of R$8,798, followed by Distrito Federal at R$7,789.
Of the twenty cities surveyed, the cities with the lowest average residential sale listings were Vila Velha at R$4,678, Goiânia at R$4,187, and Contagem at R$3,518 per square meter.
Among Brazil’s various neighborhoods, São Paulo’s upscale neighborhood of Cidade Jardim had the highest real estate sale prices in the country tipping the scales at R$21,441 per square meter. Not too far behind was Rio’s Leblon where prices averaged R$20,501 per square meter.
Rio also had the third most expensive neighborhood in the country: Ipanema, which averaged R$18,963 per square meter.
The FipeZap Index monitors real estate sale prices across twenty Brazilian cities and is a monthly gauge of real estate prices. It is prepared jointly by the university research center, Fipe (Economic Research Institute Foundation) and the Brazilian online real estate platform, Zap Properties.