By Nelson Belen, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to the latest FipeZap Residential Rental Index, which tracks residential rental listings across Brazil’s fifteen largest cities, rental prices in November dropped for the sixth consecutive month, declining -0.14 percent overall.
The drop may seem marginal, but after accumulating for the year and factoring inflation, it represents a significant drop.
Of the fifteen cities in the survey, seven registered slight increases in price listings from October to November.
However, when factoring in the month’s inflation rate of 0.28 percent, as measured by by the IPCA/IBGE (National Consumer Price Index/Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), only Recife, Curitiba, and Santos showed actual increases.
Recife showed the biggest increase at 1.03 percent, followed by Curitiba at 0.67 percent and Santos at 0.41 percent.
The biggest drops in the survey for last month were seen in Rio de Janeiro and Niteroi, with residential rental prices in the two cities declining -0.70 percent and -1.07 percent respectively.
Last month French expatriate Charlie Jonas from luxury real estate agency, Rio Exclusive shared, “The market is finally getting more reasonable and stabilizing itself.”
He added, “Rental prices skyrocketed in Rio in the past five years primarily because of the World Cup and the Olympics. Following those events and the crisis that hit Brazil, rental prices have sensibly decreased.”
When drawn out over the last twelve months, average rental prices overall in the fifteen cities surveyed declined -0.81 percent. Rio de Janeiro led the ranking with the biggest drop over this period, down -8.81 percent, followed by Campinas, down -4.08 percent.
On the positive side, over the last twelve months Recife (+4.98 percent), São Bernardo do Campo (+3.04 percent), and Curitiba (+2.89 percent) all registered increases that outpaced the inflation rate during the period of 2.80 percent.
In terms of actual prices, Brazil’s commercial capital of São Paulo held the distinction of having the most expensive residential rental prices in the country in November with an average price per square meter of R$35.62.
The Cidade Maravilhosa had the country’s second most expensive residential rental prices with an average of R$31.92 per square meter. Rounding out the top three most expensive rental prices in November was Distrito Federal, at R$29.62 per square meter.
Among the Brazilian cities with the cheapest rent per square meter in November were Goiânia (R$15.06), Fortaleza (R$16.17) and Curitiba (R$16.91).
The FipeZap Index monitors real estate sale prices across twenty 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.