By Nelson Belen, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to the latest FipeZAP Residential Sales Index, which tracks residential real estate prices in Brazil’s twenty biggest cities, prices in Brazil’s volatile residential sales sector registered no change between September to October.
The stabilizing of prices last month signals the end of a string of seven straight months of declines recorded in the Index. However, for the year, residential real estate sale prices still show a cumulative decline of -0.57 percent.
In addition, October’s 0.00 percent variation falls below the rate of inflation for the period of 0.47 percent, as measured by the IPCA/IBGE (National Consumer Price Index/Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).
Last month, only two of the twenty cities surveyed outpaced the IPCA/IBGE inflation rate: Florianópolis (0.53 percent) and Belo Horizonte (0.51 percent.
Ten of the twenty cities showed declines in residential real estate prices from September to October, with the biggest drops seen in Santos (-0.58 percent), Rio de Janeiro (-0.47 percent), and Distrito Federal (-0.38 percent).
Despite showing one of the survey’s biggest drops, Rio de Janeiro once again showed the highest average residential real estate sale prices in the country. In October, the Cidade Maravilhosa had an average listing price of R$9,871 per square meter.
Unsurprisingly, Rio also had the three most expensive neighborhoods in the survey. Rio’s upscale neighborhood of Leblon held the distinction of having Brazil’s highest real estate listings with prices averaging R$20,805 per square meter. Not too far behind was Ipanema, at R$19,445 and Lagoa at R$17,536.
Trailing Rio de Janeiro for highest average residential real estate sale prices was São Paulo. The country’s financial capital registered an average listing price per square meter of R$8,728.
In São Paulo, Vila Nova Conceição had the city’s most expensive real estate sale prices, at R$16,690 per square meter. Next was the neighborhood of Jardim Europa at R$15,805, followed by Jardim Paulistano, at R$15,608 per square meter.
Of the twenty cities surveyed, the cities showing the lowest average residential real estate sale listings were Vila Velha at R$4,628, Goiânia at R$4,104, and Contagem at R$3,538 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.