The latest survey undertaken by members of the US-based Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) pointed to Brazil’s market leading the ranking – putting the country in front of China and India.

James Fetgatter, chief executive officer and panelist at the ADIT conference  in Forteleza (May 10th-12th), commented that there ‘has not been any other country in Latin America that has shown the results that Brazil has – in 2007, the country was not even mentioned.’  He also, however, commented that the main obstacles that need to be confronted are a lack of transparency, issues over investment security and heavy bureaucracy.

At the same conference, Gary Garrabrant chief executive officer and co-founder of Equity International pointed to the issues the country still faces with regards to infrastructure and the high rates of interest on real estate loans.  In his talk, he stated that, despite the challenges: ‘our goal is to change this situation with positive results which will compensate the constraints.’

Ruban Selvanayagam www.brazilinvestmentguide.com