Brazil Rental Prices Beat Inflation for Second Consecutive Month

By Nelson Belen, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Residential rental prices in Brazil continued to show positive movement in January rising 0.41 percent. After December’s rise of 0.38 percent, this was the second consecutive month rental prices outpaced the month’s inflation rate, which in January was 0.32 percent, as calculated by the IPCA/IBGE (National Consumer Price Index/Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).

The latest rental figures were published in the FipeZap Rental Index, which tracks real estate rental listings across Brazil’s twenty-five largest cities.

Seventeen of the twenty-five cities in the survey registered increases in January with Brasília (2.15 percent), São José do Rio Preto (1.48 percent), São José (1.28 percent), and Joinville (0.96 percent) showing the biggest increases.

Notably, Rio de Janeiro showed a nominal increase in rental prices in January of 0.30 percent but still fell just short of the month’s inflation rate.

Meanwhile, rental prices in São Paulo registered an increase greater than inflation of 0.73 percent.

Of the eight cities in the survey that showed declines in January, the biggest declines were seen in Salvador and Fortaleza, where residential rental prices in the two cities declined -0.96 percent and -0.51 percent respectively.

Looking at the last twelve-month period, average rental prices in Brazil overall have increased 2.39 percent, but was still short of the period’s inflation rate of 3.72 percent.

São Bernardo de Campo had the biggest increase in that period, up 9.92 percent, with the city of Joinville in Santa Catarina not too far behind, up 9.48 percent.

Over the twelve-month period, Rio de Janeiro rental prices decreased -3.09 percent, while São Paulo prices increased 4.03 percent.

January’s survey also showed the average price per square meter of the twenty-five cities. São Paulo city held the distinction of having Brazil’s most expensive residential rental prices in January with an average price per square meter of R$37.02.

Barueri, also in São Paulo state, was a distant second with rental prices hovering at R$31.96 per square meter. The Cidade Maravilhosa rounded out the top three in January at R$30.21 per square meter.

Within the city of São Paulo, the upscale neighborhood of Vila Olímpia, which is home to the Brazilian offices of several multinational companies including Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft, had the most expensive rental prices in the entire country with listings averaging R$75.99 per square meter.

Meanwhile in Rio, Leblon and Ipanema had the highest rental prices in the city at R$54.83 and R$51.75 per square meter respectively.

The FipeZap Index monitors real estate sale prices across fifteen Brazilian cities and is a monthly gauge of property prices.

It is prepared jointly by the university research center, Fipe (Economic Research Institute Foundation) and the Brazilian online real estate platform, Zap Properties.