Brazilian buyers bump up purchases in Miami

Hoards of Brazilian investors are buying up Miami in bulk, Forbes reported, with 9 percent of residential real estate transactions in 2010 listing Brazilian buyers, according to statistics from the Miami Association of Realtors. Projections for that figure this year are close to 20 percent, sources said.

Last year, Brazilian buyers accounted for more than half of all the properties selling for $500,000 or more in downtown Miami, Forbes said, and almost 50 percent of sales over a million dollars on Miami Beach.

Strong Brazilian currency against the dollar means that Brazilians can spend less to acquire great waterfront properties.

“They are getting low interest rates of around 4 percent a year, which is better than they would get in Brazil to buy a house, and many are putting down large down payments, so they can bargain for lower prices with the seller,” said Fernando Bergallo, a forex broker at TOV Corretora in São Paulo.

“Miami is simply cheaper for Brazilians, especially when you consider the cost-benefit of a property in an American city that has all the infrastructure you can imagine, in a secure neighborhood and the properties themselves are often better than the structures they’re getting in Brazil,” he said. [Forbes]