Why would you invest in Natal?

[robh]

Originally Posted by michaelbush

Agreed Rob- the market is changing and my main client type is now the real investor as opposed to the holiday home buyer. We have many good lands suitable for building 'popular houses' that can be bought by Brasilians with a mortgage of up to 30 years. Agreed the areas of urban expansion is in Nova Parna***m, Parnamirim, Macaiba, Nova Natal etc. Yes there is a good profit to be made in developing these lands. Prices of land are shooting up, but there are still some very good buys for the shrewd investor. We also have some very good working Fazendas at really low prices that will give an income return from crops, cattle etc, even after all costs are taken out. eg 45 hectares just 10km from the ew airport for 300k R$, 221 ha. cattle, 50ha of Capim Pangola for 700kR$. Many more too.

The holiday/second home market is still doing pretty well, but it is all about location.

We just got a villa on our books today for around £850k which we expect will be sold very quickly, we are consulting on a development that is coming up where all the villas are around 800k€ plus, the architect hasn't even finished the plans, let alone applying for planning permission and a few of the villas are reserved already!

[Dotty]

We are talking about the social properties at the lower end of the market,and not the lux end.If you mean the lux end Alphaville then that is something else as we have land there.

Originally Posted by robh

I am not sure what you are talking about Dotty, but we setup the whole project for an investor, the project is then launched and sold directly to Brazilians. This isn't for your average investor as it requires at least R$1 mil up front, but the profits are extremely good.

[Mineiro]

Originally Posted by robh

I am not sure what you are talking about Dotty, but we setup the whole project for an investor, the project is then launched and sold directly to Brazilians. This isn't for your average investor as it requires at least R$1 mil up front, but the profits are extremely good.

Rob, are you talking about buying a large area of land and splitting up into lots and then selling the lots to lower middle class Brazilians, in a sort of lower end condominio.

[robh]

Originally Posted by Mineiro

Rob, are you talking about buying a large area of land and splitting up into lots and then selling the lots to lower middle class Brazilians, in a sort of lower end condominio.

If only it were that easy, but I don't think lots can be bought with social mortgages. I am talking about developing apartment complexes.

[Blc]

Originally Posted by robh

If only it were that easy, but I don't think lots can be bought with social mortgages. I am talking about developing apartment complexes.

Mortgages are available but only if the roads and electricity are in place.

[robh]

Originally Posted by Blc

Mortgages are available but only if the roads and electricity are in place.

Social mortgages?

The reason why the projects are for apartment complexes is that the govt. and big banks get involved so things run smoothly and sales are very quick.

[anthonyasael]

hi,

not everone is aware of the negative points of investing in Natal .... can someone state it in the Forum ? Which are they compared to other brasilian cities ?

thx,
Anthony

[JMBroad]

Originally Posted by anthonyasael

hi,

not everone is aware of the negative points of investing in Natal .... can someone state it in the Forum ? Which are they compared to other brasilian cities ?

thx,
Anthony

There are many positive things I'd use to describe Natal compared to other Brazilian cities however if I had to name a negative point I'd probably say that it was the fact that Natal was so sure of it's appeal to foreigners that they got lost in a Spanish siesta. In other words, International tourism grew exponentially for so many years that the local government became complacent and went with the age old axiom of "things are great, so we don't need to spend money" on advertising a state everyone already wants. Unfortunatey, anyone related to marketing would tell you that is the wrong way to go about business.

Mistakes at the fundamental level brought about some cancelled flights and the loss of some tourism over the past year while a neighbour state saw numbers increase slowly. While Natal remains one of the top 4 destinations in North East Natal, and the numbers are way above what they were three or four years ago, they could have (and should have) improved a lot more. On the other hand, domestic tourism took over and increased at a faster rate than the international had been increasing - so that is good. And considering the economic turmoil and Brazil's resilience to it, it may well have been a great idea to focus on the domestic market - although I'm inclined to think it was luck more than anything else.

Luckily Natal now has a new secretary of tourism who is very pro-active and keen to make sure Natal gets back to it's former days of international tourism growth

That's pretty much the only thing that I can think of off-hand but looking forward to some other opinions.