EcoHouse Group Release More Photos from Casa Nova, Investors are excited

More Funds for Minha Casa Minha Vida in 2014

President Dilma Rousseff’s government is increasing funding for the landmark Minha Casa Minha Vida (My House My Life) program by R$1 billion in 2014. The move, which will funnel R$15.77 billion into the government-sponsored housing credit initiative, according to O Globo, is an attempt to shore up support for Rousseff in an election year.

The report indicates that, at a time when support for Bolsa Família (Family Scholarship) is high among other candidates, the Workers’ Party (PT) president can no longer rely on the ten-year-old conditional cash transfer program to generate excitement and electoral support as she seeks reelection this November. Bolsa Família, enacted by Rousseff’s predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in 2003, is largely credited for lifting millions of Brazilians out of extreme poverty in the last decade.
Its supporters point to Bolsa Família’s fame as one of the most effective poverty-reduction programs in the world. To its harshest critics, it is a vote-buying scheme that creates clientelism. Ensuring that Bolsa Família is maintained is said to have been key to securing the victory of Workers’ Party candidates in the last two presidential elections.

President Rousseff’s opposition is now labeling her effort to increase Minha Casa Minha Vida funds as opportunism.

“There’s a great electoral opportunism in making a one R$1 billion reinforcement in the program in an election year. The government uses the weaknesses of the poorest population to perpetuate itself in power. But that bill will be paid by society one day, because they are creating a huge bubble, the degree of bankruptcy is very high,” warned Senator Cássio Cunha Lima from Brazil’s Social Democracy Party (PSDB).

Yet in November 2013, PSDB’s presidential candidate, Aécio Neves, introduced a bill in the Senate that would guarantee Bolsa Família would not be repealed by other governments.

Rousseff’s government is hoping 3.5 million homes will be finished between 2015 and 2018, an increase from the 2.7 million houses completed during phase two of Minha Casa Minha Vida that draws to a close this year. Rousseff had initially proposed three million homes for the third phase of the program.

“Those who are against extending the resources of Minha Casa Minha Vida for 2014 are the same who voted against the creation of the program back then,” PT leader José Guimarães told O Globo. The public housing program was enacted by Lula in 2009. Over one million homes have been completed and delivered since its start. As Bolsa Família, Minha Casa Minha Vida is popular among low income Brazilians and enjoys wide support from the larger population.

The program provides financing so that those households making under three times the minimum wage can buy their first home with low interest loans. It is meant to influence the housing market so that it offers an adequate supply of affordable houses to low-income prospective homeowners.
O Globo reported that Rousseff has asked her ministers to address the flaws that the program’s opponents might rail against during her reelection campaign this year. Minha Casa Minha Vida has been marked by fraud scandals and by accusations of delivering inadequate, poor quality homes. The government is hoping to quickly finish the second phase’s technical studies so that it can use the project’s successes in its campaign.

EcoHouse Group currently have a number of minha casa minha vida developments underway throughout Brazil and are able offer safe, secure and ethical Brazilian Property Investment direct.

Brazilian State of Bahia would benefit from EcoHouse Group and Minha Casa Minha Vida

As the Minha Casa Minha programme enters its fourth year it has become apparent that the programme will get extend at least until 2016, President Dilma has more or less confirmed this during recent speeches. This news means that more areas will reap the benefits of the programme. As each area awaits news one of the largest Minha Casa Minha Vida developers in Brazil, EcoHouse Group is tight lipped regarding the locations of any future projects. Here's a little more info on the state of Bahia

Bahia is not one of the very largest states in Brazil but it’s certainly pretty big. The exact size is something over half a million square Kilometres which makes it about twice the area of the United Kingdom or about the same as France. The population of fourteen million however is much less than either (and is only about double the size of London). Of these, about 2.5 million live in the Salvador area of the State capital. Other important cities in the State are Feira de Santana (600,000 people), Vitoria da Conquista (300,000) and Camaçari ( 250,000)

The state is on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. As mentioned above, its capital is the city of Salvador, also on the coast, where the Atlantic meets the Bay of All Saints (in Portuguese; ‘Bahia de Todos os Santos’) which of course is where the name of the whole state originates. By the way, the site of the city was first glimpsed by exploring sailors from Europe in the year 1501. The state is geographically divided into two main regions by the north-south mountain range known as Chapada Diamantina. Nowadays the eastern coastal areas of the state are much more developed than the interior.

There are several reasons for this. For a start, the natural vegetation of much of the Atlantic seaboard is coastal forest, one of the largest remaining such parts of Brazil. The land is comparatively very fertile. Consequently in cleared areas the main crops of sugar and tobacco have always done well in the plentiful rainfall although these products are rather less important than they once were. These days soybean growing is a really large part of cultivation.. Similarly, Bahia is now (and has been for some time) the country’s largest producer and exporter of cacao, often known as cocoa and of course the basic ingredient of chocolate. But agriculture these days only accounts for about ten per cent of Bahia State’s GDP. Roughly speaking the industrial component comprises around 50% and the service sector 40%.

Industries are diverse and tend to focus on petrochemical and metallurgical products. An increasing part of this is the automotive industry. Other developing concerns in the economic mix are textiles, clothing and footwear as well as cosmetics and food processing. In the new 21st century Bahia is generally regarded as doing better economically than many other parts of Brazil. As a result of this, many administrators believe that inward immigration from other parts of Brazil will soon increase drastically.

EcoHouse Brazil CEO Anthony Armstrong Emery Showing up the Locals

EcoHouse is one of the few British firms making it big in Brazil. But the social housing developer has not exactly been welcomed with open arms. Emily Wright travelled to Natal to meet chief executive Anthony Armstrong Emery.

I have a reputation here in Brazil for being aggressive," says British developer Anthony Armstrong Emery. He pauses - a little for dramatic effect but mainly to light a fresh cigarette -  and leans back in his leather chair before adding: "It’s usually true. But then this is an extremely hostile environment. I have plenty of enemies."

Meet the self-confessed "big-headed, phenomenally successful" chief executive of EcoHouse Group - the £65m social housing developer set up in 2009 that, as of December last year, became the biggest company in north-eastern Brazil. It is one of the few examples of a British property firm making it big on Brazilian soil. And it has not come without some fallout. Indeed, on journeys between construction sites in Natal - the backwater beach city on Brazil’s north coast and home to EcoHouse HQ - it becomes clear just how seriously Richmond-born Armstrong Emery takes the threat of those aforementioned enemies. The chauffeurs in his reinforced, bulletproof 4x4s are all ex- BOPE officers - a special forces unit of the military police of Rio de Janeiro state, trained in urban warfare - and he travels in the middle of a three-car convoy.

When asked whether such high security is necessary in a seemingly quiet seaside region, he is quick to explain: "Three years ago I rolled into a town once run by four or five powerful local families and became one of the most influential people here. I have killed off business for a lot of local people who were doing poor-quality social housing units by pushing up land prices with my product. And because we are not being funded by Brazilian banks, our source is not controlled by anyone here, so no one can do anything to curb our growth. The security is necessary." Over the course of two days in Natal, Armstrong Emery, 44, explains how he plans to help plug Brazil’s 8m homes deficit by building 40,000 social housing units over the next five years. He also reveals how, so far, he has been able to guarantee his investors a 20% return on their investment within 12 months and insists that not even the most vicious of opponents will get in the way of his ambitious expansion plans.

Offering the option

EcoHouse has over 1,000 staff working across offices in London, Singapore, Dubai, São Paulo and Toronto. Armstrong Emery set up the HQ in Natal in 2009 to focus on Brazil in particular over the next four years in response to the unprecedented investment taking place in the country and to piggy-back on the Brazilian government’s $1tn Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life) programme, which aims to deliver 3m new homes to low-income families by 2014.

And Armstrong Emery claims that his investment model and large-scale development has given him the edge to provide a premium product. "People in Brazil were accepting what was given to them because there were no options," he says. "Now I am offering that option." EcoHouse’s fifth social housing scheme has now started on site in Natal as the group plans to build 8,000 social housing units this year, followed by 10,000 in 2014. At £23,000 a unit, sales are expected to bring in revenues of £184m this year, £230m in 2014 and £920m over the next five years.

The units are funded by international investors - mainly from the UK and Singapore - which Armstrong Emery bills as the ultimate opportunity for overseas firms to get in on the Brazilian market while the iron is hot ahead of the World Cup and Olympics. Up until earlier this year, EcoHouse has delivered investors 20% ROI within 12 months. That has now been reduced to 10-17%. "It’s three years on, I have a 1,500-strong client base and I don’t feel I have to dangle the 20% incentive anymore," he says. But it is still an attractive offer when twinned with the security. The company uses a secure investment structure which has been risk-assessed by CAIXA banks, registered with the Brazilian government, and is protected by UK legislation as all investment is placed in an escrow account with Lloyd’s of London. The return uplift comes from every investor putting in £23,600 per unit to fund construction, which is then sold for £31,700 as part of the government-backed scheme - well in line with local prices. Some £27,000 goes back to the investor and the rest stays with EcoHouse. "We sold out one entire scheme with sales worth £5.8m over one weekend last year," says Armstrong Emery. "This is partly because I am able to use quantities of scale to provide a very middle class product for the same price as other, lower-grade units. I am upping the game and eating into everyone else’s margin. "I put in granite work surfaces, porcelain tiling, barbecues and gardens. We are the first social housing developer offering centralised sewage works, for God’s sake. I can do this because we are developing with private funds rather than banks, so we can build quickly, more efficiently and - because I have the money invested in full upfront - I am in a strong position to negotiate with the factories. I don’t want 1,000 of their bricks. I want all of their bricks. As a result I am hitting 30, 40, even 50% reductions on my materials."

Friends in the right places

And despite earlier conversations, life and work in Brazil is not all about battling enemies. Armstrong Emery has friends on hand too. He just makes sure they are the right ones. "Brazil is a third-world country and it is all about who you know," he shrugs, lighting another cigarette. "You need to know the town planners, the local architects. How good a friend you are with these people will determine how quickly you can get things done. You imagine a planner with 5,000 building applications on their desk. I make sure mine go to the top. I don’t pay anyone. It’s all legitimate. But I make sure I know people or that I am working with people who do. We have projects outside Natal in Brasilia, São Paulo, Rio, and for those we need builders. I pick one of the top three construction firms in the area and I make sure they know the right people. This is why it is so important to use local firms."

Expansion plans

Last month Armstrong Emery opened an office in his birthplace of Richmond and says that London will become the hub for all future European deals and Singapore will be the Asia Pacific equivalent. "EcoHouse was initially set up to raise funds for investment in Brazil," he says. "But we are doing more commercial work now across Brazil - we are hoping to deliver 500 office units in São Paulo over the next two years to generate £35m - and the rest of the world. "I am keeping an eye on Europe - any deals there will be done through London. Spain and Portugal, for example, are struggling at the moment. But there might well be some great opportunities on the horizon to pick up real estate at low prices - especially from bank repossessions." Capitalising on the weak, he says, is the British way. "We take advantage of those in weak positions. It is what we have been doing throughout British history. We may have done it in a velvet glove but we did it all the same. I don’t mind admitting this is how I sometimes do business. I can be pretty hostile when it comes to deals and aggressive when it comes to politics. I am on the front page of most local newspapers here every day and I have cut very close to the bone. But I will absolutely carry on what I am doing." On balance, the reinforced, bulletproof 4x4s were probably a wise investment.

Boa Vista lends to the success of the Minha Casa Minha Vida Social Housing Programme

The success of the Minha Casa Minha Vida Social Housing programme has been amazing, and since it's official launch back in the spring of 2009 the programme has gone from strength to strength and is well on track to hit it's 5 million home projection by early 2014. Minha Casa Minha Vida is now rolling out throughout Brazil and the latest city to benefit from the programme is Boa Vista

Boa Vista (Fine View) is a Brazilian city of about a quarter of a million people. It's the capital of the state of Roraima and is located in the far north of the country at 2.8 degrees N Latitude and 60.7 degrees W Longitude. It's only about 130 miles from the border with Venezuela, not far at all in terms of Brazil's huge size. Boa Vista also has the distinction of being the only state capital situated north of the Equator. It is situated a vast 6,000 Km from both Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo and 4,300 Km from Brasilia, the national capital, thus emphasising again the enormous scale of this, the sixth largest country in the world.

Most of the two-way trade involving Boa Vista is with Manaus, the large, Amazon-based capital of the state of Amazonas. Commerce also exists between Boa Vista and the town of Lethem in Guyana, also with Santa Elena in Venezuela. Apart from these three (and some smaller regional towns) that's really the only scope for road communications. Everywhere else in Brazil has to be reached by air. Boa Vista is unusual in that its layout was actually planned originally. It's been set-out radially, in a series of concentric rings, rather than grew up organically like so many other cities. The architect Darsi Derenusson drew up the city's plans, based on those of Paris and Boa Vista was formally founded in the year 1890 as 'Boa Vista do Rio Branco', referring to the river on which the city stands. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the Dutch, Spanish and British empires had their eye on the area later to become Boa Vista and Roraima, but since then the region has been firmly Portuguese. The wider state of Roraima only has fifteen municipalities in its entire area. The capital, Boa Vista has more than fifty percent of a total population of 470,000.. According to FUNAI, the federal agency, more than thirty thousand of these are indigenous people ('Indians') of the Amazon River and area. The state is the most northern and also the least populated in the whole of Brazil, having only become a fully-fledged state in the year 1988. Previously it had been a federal territory since the middle of the twentieth century.

Nowadays the state has an economy worth about 3.6 Billion Reais per year. This is overwhelmingly based on the service sector with industry and agriculture scarcely exceeding ten per cent between them. On average the GDP per person of the city and surrounding areas is only around nine thousand Reais per capita.The climate of the area is generally described as tropical savannah and it is of course heavily influenced by the mighty Amazon which dominates the ecology of northern Brazil. This means that the general weather patterns are hot and rainy from May to August then very warm and dry from September to April. Average temperatures vary remarkably little between the two and indeed across the whole twelve months of the year.

Minha Casa Minha Vida hasn't just been a useful tool for reducing the housing deficit in the country, the programme has been instrumental in the runaway success of the booming Brazilian economy thanks to the foreign investment that the programme has bought thanks to international property developers such as the award winning EcoHouse Group who choose to build Minha Casa Minha Vida homes with investors funds rather than finance from the banks, this has seen the company build 1000's more Minha Casa Minha Vida homes than other developer involved in the programme.

EcoHouse Group Looking Forward to a Very Successful Year

So far, 2013 is proving to be a landmark year for EcoHouse Group and there's still three quarters of it to go! To begin with, a crucially important general achievement was the Company being awarded the ISO 9001 quality management certification. The prominence of this world-class accreditation can't be exaggerated. It is, after all the globe's most widely recognised and respected certification of company performance, demonstrating stellar levels of efficiency, quality of service and investor satisfaction.

EcoHouse CEO Anthony Armstrong Emery commented;" ISO 9001 is the most widely recognised quality management standard in the world. It demonstrates our commitment in meeting the needs of investors, property purchasers and agents and enables us to continue to achieve consistent excellence in performance and service". Throughout the world well over one million organisations are independently certified for the award. This makes ISO 9001 one of the most widely regarded benchmarks for commerce and industry, helping holders to attract and retain business at much higher levels. EcoHouse is an international operation. Most of its 'end-product' is of course in Brazil but increasingly, administration and investment centres elsewhere are growing in importance. They are strategically located and developing in Canada, Britain, the Gulf and, increasingly, Singapore. For example, SMART Expo, Asia's longest-established Property development showcase held their thirtieth continental exhibition at the Sands Centre in Singapore recently. The two day event was addressed by EcoHouse's North American Chief, Deen Bissessar who massively impressed the assembly with the company's investment products. He explained in detail the benefits of planning ahead when investing in property and outlined the excellent opportunities with Brazil social housing. Mr. Bissessar concluded by remarking "The EcoHouse social housing product is currently so in demand that most of our units are pre-sold to end Brazilian buyers before we even allocate an investor to finance the construction of their unit". Also in the south-east Asian metropolis, EcoHouse held three separate presentations in Singapore at the beginning of February. These were mainly for existing EcoHouse investors and more that 550 of them attended the meetings at the Company's prestigious new headquarters on Temasek Boulevard.

The presentations were introduced by Andrew Batt, International Editor of the celebrated Singapore 'Property Guru' website. EcoHouse senior executives were also present to explain about the Company's recent exciting new developments in Brazil. A great start to the Chinese New Year! The following month, on 2nd March Ecohouse founder and CEO Anthony Armstrong Emery addressed 400 people at the ST Property Forum in Singapore. EcoHouse was the main sponsor for the event. Mr. Emery spoke to the gathering about Property Investment Strategy for the 'Year of the Snake' .He was also accompanied by his International Commercial Director, Jason Purvor. Another exciting innovation for EcoHouse clients only applies at present to Singapore investors but may well be expanded later to include others. It's that investors who leave their money with EcoHouse for three years (rather than just one) can now get paid back up to eleven months early;.

It's a win-win situation! The extra investment helps EcoHouse further accelerate planned construction of 40,000 homes over the next five years and is also ideal for investors who are able to leave their capital outlay with us a little longer than the standard one-year.In return, three-year investors will receive their 20% return now, as well as receiving 20% a year for the next three years.

EcoHouse Launch New Corporate Video

EcoHouse Group Corporate Video Showcasing the companies continuing dedication to Minha Casa Minha Vida and Brazilian Social Housing, After the success of Arco Iris and Casa Nova, EcoHouse have recently launched their third Minha Casa Minha Vida Development, Bosque Residencial.

EcoHouse now have offices in London, Sao Paulo, Natal, Toronto, Singapore and Dubai and are making Minha Casa Minha Vida Investments more popular than ever. http://www.ecohousegroup.com

Minha Casa Minha Vida Housing for another 6000 families in Rio

The famous 'Minha Casa Minha Vida' affordable housing scheme has gained a well-deserved reputation in Brazil. The overall idea is to enable millions of people on modest incomes to be able to afford to buy decent homes for the very first time, helped by specially designed mortgages.

One of the latest developments is in the Jacarepagua area of Rio. It is expected to benefit at least six thousand people in 1,400 units.
The target is for construction to be completed by the end of next year (2014). Before that, hoves, bids from propspective builders will be assessed and contracts to build allocated.

That is expected by February 18 this year.

Manaus Brazil a Tropical Metropolis Popular with Foreign Investors

Of all the cities in Brazil perhaps the most unusual is Manaus, riverside capital of the state of Amazonas. As that description suggests, it has a untypical location (and indeed reputation) sited as it is near (practically on) the mighty River Amazon and in the midst of the historic rainforest. It's also quite remote, considering its size. The metropolitan area is very nearly two thousand Kilometres from the national capital, Brasilia. It's a bit more than that to either Rio de Janiero or Sao Paolo and the trip to both takes nearly four hours by air.
The settlement goes back a very long way in time. The earliest recorded existence is way back in 1669 when (very!) early Portuguese explorers/colonists established a fort and trading post. Things slowly developed from there and the growing settlement was officially constituted as a town –called 'Manaus' (“mother of the gods” in a local tongue)- in 1832. Just sixteen years later they achieved the next step, status as a fully-fledged city.

The city and its surrounding area really took off in the late nineteenth century. This was almost entirely due to the rubber industry boom, where for a while the producers round here enjoyed a virtual world monopoly. The city became very wealthy, very quickly. It quickly acquired all the trappings of ostentatious wealth; huge mansions, expensive public buildings, a magnificent opera house (the 'Teatro Amazonas')and so on.Inevitably though, plants and seeds were successfully smuggled out to other areas and countries (e.g. Malaya) and the area lost its dominance in the industry and its position as an economic powerhouse.For quite a while, though, the city boomed and many fortunes were made and millionaires created. Eventually however things went rapidly to the other extreme and real poverty struck for many people.

Since then there's been a healthy recovery based on a duty-free regime, a fact that's of interest (and great relief) to long term investment providers in this part of the country and come to think of it short term investment too. Both levels of course demonstrate a vibrant combination of both domestic and international finance. So, nowadays the city has bounced back from its slump to such an extent that its metropolitan area, with 2.3 million people, is the largest in northern Brazil. Its GDP contributes about 1.5 percent of the whole country's GDP which is about average for Brazil on a person-by-person basis. The area also accounts for almost exactly half of the entire Amazon regional population. To a large extent, economic prosperity is grounded on the Manaus Free Trade Zone, a federally approved initiative which has proved popular in Brazil to say the least and is directly responsible for nearly a hundred thousand jobs within the zone and more than twice as many again outside it.

Weather is unusual for this kind of terrain and vegetation. There are distinct wet and dry seasons. So, instead of having a typical tropical rainforest ('jungle') climate the local pattern is more usually categorised as more of a monsoon type. year round average temperatures are in excess of 30 degrees Celsius making this a very popular area for investors looking to build hotels and resorts aimed at holiday makers looking to get that tropical feeling from their surroundings. Anyone looking to Invest In Brazil, Especially in property and real estate should consider this area as a number of investment news websites and publications are already promoting the area as one of the top emerging Brazilian investment spots of 2013.
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Triple Victory for EcoHouse at the OPP Awards

Wednesday was a very special night for the international property industry. More than three hundred representatives from companies operating around the globe gathered in London at the prestigious 'The Brewer' of EC1 for a gala evening.

The event was held under the auspices of OPP (Overseas Propert Professionals) and was to celebrate and reward the best and brightest stars in the overseas property world over the past year. A sort of cross between the Oscars and the Olympics for the profession !

We're very pleased and proud to announce that the panel of independent judges awarded EcoHouse not just one or two but three major awards. These were for 'Best Affordable Development', Best Estate Agency-Middle East and Best Developer-South America.

EcoHouse CEO Anthony Armstrong-Emery expressed his delight at the achievements. He made a point of publicly thanking all his staff who he gratefully acknowledged has all contributed to this great outcome for the company

Sao Paulo Brazil now a Major Economic Hub and a hit with Foreign Investors

Most people in other countries tend to have very settled views about Brazil. They think of the Amazon, the coffee, the football, the Rio carnival and very little else. But there's an awful lot more to this fascinating country than that. For a start, its sheer size, with an area nearly three and a half million square miles and a population now well over two hundred million. In fact in both aspects Brazil is now the world's fifth largest country. In economic terms, too the nation is powering ahead, with a GDP value which is the world's sixth largest. Apart from the USA, Brazil is easily the biggest and most vibrant industrial power in the Americas.
Within the country there's an astonishing diversity of territory including tropical rainforest, grassland, farmed areas and cities. By far the biggest built-up area is the coastal conurbation of Sao Paolo and the surrounding area. Not only is this city the biggest and most populous in Brazil ( nearly 50% bigger than Rio de Janiero for instance) but 'S.P' is also the largest city in the whole of the southern hemisphere and indeed seventh largest in the world. Not only that but the area's per capita GDP is second only to the capital, Brasilia. As well as a huge variety of domestic and international business centres, Sao Paolo also hosts the Stock Exchange and the Cereal Stock Exchange which is in fact the second largest Stock Exchange, by value, on the planet!

A city of this size also has considerable cultural and political influence, as you'd expect. For instance every two years it hosts the Sao Paolo Art Biennial and (more frequently) the famous Fashion Week, not to mention a host of international sporting events such as the Brazil Grand Prix Formula 1 and the Indy 300.
The city has a long history, dating all the way back to the first half of the sixteenth century. To put it in perspective, that was about the time King Henry the eighth was having his marital difficulties in England ! Obviously, the area like the rest of Brazil was under Portuguese rule for centuries. In fact , the original village of Sao Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga was settled some 50km inland from the very first settlement in Portuguese Brazil, Sao Vincente. The town then city grew slowly until the mid nineteenth century when it and the nearby port of Santos entered a prolonged boom caused by the world demand for coffee.

The original European settlers and their indigenous and African slaves occupied the country almost exclusively till 1888 when slavery was abolished. After that, Brazil saw the beginnings of its modern cosmopolitan nature when wave after wave of European and middle eastern immigrants came to the country. Members of all groups settled in Sao Paolo of course but Italians featured particularly.

When coffee as an important product subsided somewhat it was replaced by sugar cane and alcohol plus of course a great many other industries. In the present day this mighty metropolis is a major economic hub, encouraging and rewarding both long term investment and also short term investment especially in property and real estate where thousands of investors, big and small, from all over the world have already invested in the popular Minha Casa Minha Vida social housing programme. Real estate and other ethical investments opportunities will continue to advance the economy for many years to come.

Foreign Investment in Minha Casa Minha Vida Social Housing Continues to Rise

Ask any investment advisor or company or go and browse any alternative investment news website and the main topic is Brazilian real estate investments, and the main focus is the governments Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House My Life) programme. But why all the interest in the country? and what is this programme all about? There is currently a massive property boom going on in all of Brazil's main cities and it's being fuelled by the demand for affordable residential housing.

Brazil's economy has improved a great deal in recent years and is now the 6th largest economy in the world, there has also been a swift increase in general wealth of it's people. This has meant an unparalleled demand for reasonably priced housing. The rapidly growing middle classes, for one thing, have needed many more affordable homes to purchase than were previously available. Coupled with this is the situation of those whose present accommodation is sadly unsatisfactory or below standard.

The solution to this housing shortage was an idea first put onto the table by the previous president of Brazil Lula da Silva way back in 2008 which was to build affordable housing for the growing middle classes and to have set sale prices, one hundred percent mortgages provided by Brazil's federal bank and strict rules for purchase of a property to avoid these homes being bought and sold by the wrong people who were simply out to make a profit and to make certain that these homes went to middle class Brazilian families who needed then and who previously had little hope of getting onto the property ladder. The programme was finally launched 2009 and was welcomed both by the Brazilian media and the public. The name given to this programme was Minha Casa Minha Vida, which translates to my house, my life. Within the programmes first year tens of thousands of homes were built and sold and the scheme was seen as a huge success. Now approaching it's forth year interest in the programme by foreign investors has grown significantly with investors from the United Kingdom, the United States, Asia and the Middle East investing heavily in the programme.

The reason that this programme is so popular with investors from around the world is that is marketed as the safest foreign real estate investment currently available, the programme is a backed by the Brazilian federal government and there are millions of families on the waiting list so that once a home is completed it is instantly sold and the investors funds, plus profits are returned, usually within 12 months. Investment is through actually developers who are building the homes and not through a third party investment company.
With any popular investment, once it is well known enough all the conmen and dodgy investment companies seem to come out of the woodwork keen to take your money and then vanish, so be cautious and bear in mind these simple points that could save you from being a victim of a con. You should be investing direct with a developer and not an investment company, the developer will use your investment to build one or more units and return your investment plus profit in around 12 months, minimum investment is usually between £23,000 and £25,000 and because the final sale price of these properties is set by the Brazilian federal government your profit is set also and genuine companies are offering between 18% and 22% depending on how many units you invest in, a company offering a too good to be true return on investments ( I've seen one dodgy company claiming 80% ROI) should be avoided like the plague.

In summary, anyone wanting to Invest in Brazil and it's booming economy should consider Minha Casa Minha Vida Social Housing Investments, if your cautious and fully research who your investing through you can turn a tidy profit from this safe and secure investment.
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Brazil Invest in New Transport Monitoring System

In a country as rapidly-developing as Brazil it's no surprise that the infrastructure is just as quickly expanding. Communications of all kinds get more and more important and more and more busy too, including the physical means of getting from one place to another, especially the land-based means. Many would argue, as the Brazilians do that all this requires some sort of overall co-ordination and monitoring if it is to be kept in at least minimal balance.

This is where ANTT, the country's National Transportation Agency comes in. The organisation has devised and developed a new kind of 'supersystem' for scrutinising and directing Brazil's railways and road systems. The task is not easy or small! Regarding the train network there are nearly 28,000 Km of rail (not including urban metro systems) of at least four different gauges, ninety-five percent not yet electrified. At this point it's important to note a new 10,000 Km set of rail networks, announced by the Brazilian Government in August.
With roads, if anything the picture is even more complex. Nearly two million kilometers criss-cross the country. About ten percent of it paved and/or tarmac, everything from multi-lane superhighways all the way down to modest, one lane suburban drives. The other ninety per cent is often little more than weather-ridden dirt-tracks. The whole network is huge and is in fact the fourth-largest in the whole world. The purpose of the new surveillance system is ambitious; it is nothing less than to enable the Government to oversee the whole pattern of road and rail transport in Brazil. This will include tracking interstate freight and shipments of all kinds, buses and passenger trains, monitoring traffic flow at 'normal' or 'exceptional times. The Government believes that the present (in many cases ad hoc) methods already in use do not meet the needs of a rapidly-expanding modern economy like Brazil. After all, the BRICS nation is the world's fifth largest in terms of both population and land area and soon hopes to move up to fifth in terms of GDP Economy too.
In preparation for the full scale implementation of the new transport monitoring scheme, several pilot schemes are already in operation. Perhaps the most notable to date is one on a stretch of railway line between the Port of Santos and Sao Paolo, Brazil's ( and indeed the southern hemisphere's) largest urban area. This focus has been deliberately chosen for its congestion and also for its potential for problems. After all, the oversee systems are mainly centered at the HQ of ANTT in Brazil and is directly connected to the monitoring mechanisms of MRS and ALL lines.

A vital component is the video camera network, doing a crucial job in assessing whether time constraints and interchanges of rolling stock are going as planned. As regards roads, clearly only the major or middle-ranging highways are eligible for this kind of co-ordinated overseeing. The system is called SNV (Sistema nacional de Viacao) – 'National Highway System' and is both extensive and fiendishly complicate, to say the least.

Needless to say, a more efficient land-transport managing system is in the interests of the whole economy, not least including long term investment and short term investment in this booming country and the main reason why individuals and companies are continuing to invest in Brazil and why Investment News publications and websites are around the world continue to list Brazil as the worlds number one investment destination.
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Minha Casa Minha Vida One Million Completions

Every Week Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff broadcasts her radio show ‘Café com a Presidente’ (Coffee with the President). Last week the main item was a particularly important one, affordable housing.



'Dilma' was reporting progress on the inspiring Government-sponsored ‘Minha Casa Minha Vida’ scheme ( in which EcoHouse is proud to be a major player). The target is for 3.4 million homes to be completed and delivered to people of modest means by 2014. This will make a really significant dent in the affordable housing deficit in Brazil, something that President Rousseff’s Government and its predecessor has been very concerned to achieve.

As of the end of August this year, the one million deliveries mark has been reached, an important milestone especially as, if anything that target has been reached ahead of schedule.

Higher Returns on Investments attributable to the Strong Position of Women in Brazil

As regards both their position in the economy and also in wider society, there's no doubt that women's contributions in Brazil are even more central and vital than they've ever been. In common with many other countries throughout Latin America, the status of females in the Country has steadily improved in recent decades. Equality is still not widespread however, despite the undoubted advances.

Since the most recent national constitution in 1988, both genders have, at least formally, enjoyed equal status in terms of rights and responsibilities. In practice, however, there are still some big differences between the two sexes. This is especially true in such areas as the economy, employment and public representation, let alone the (slightly!) greater contribution of males in the home. For instance, while it's illegal to discriminate between men and women in terms of wages, salaries and terms of employment, the average female wage tends to be lower in practice than the male one. Across the whole economy, the Labour and Employment Ministry has concluded that, worker-by-worker the average woman is paid about thirty per cent less than the average man on an hourly or yearly basis. Also the types of work undertaken tend to show quite marked gender patterns, despite numerous and growing exceprtions

This is noticeable at all levels. While Brazil has its first female President, Dilma Rousseff, less than ten percent of all other elected politicians at national level are women. The figure is higher at state and/or municipal level but only very slightly. It's a similar story in the judicial system where the UN found that only about five per cent of the most senior lawyers and judges were women. Elsewhere in society and the economy the pattern is an interesting one. Less than forty percent of Brazil's adult women are active, it seems, in the formal economy. But one must be careful because the alternative informal economy of unregistered and unregulated work is estimated to be large and growing.

As far as it can be measured, government statistics have found that most women in work are grouped into just a few main categories. For instance, 17% are occupied in wholesale or retail, 16% as domestic servants and employees in private households, 14% in agriculture or forestry pursuits and twelve percent in manufacturing, both large-scale and small-scale. In addition, a further 13% of women work in community services including health and social services and an additional ten percent in education, heavily concentrated at the low or middle levels of teaching or administration.

A really prominent example, though, of women's progress in recent years is in the field of education. Not only are there more female higher education students than males these days but the overall literacy figures throughout Brazil's society show that women slightly overtake men these days. In both cases the figure is just above 88%. This can only point positively to a workforce even better equipped these days to contribute well to the economy and to the life of the country on a wider scale. There's no doubt that this can only promise good results for returns on investment in Brazil, among many other aspects of this leading BRICS nation.

A highly respected Investment News Website is predicting that investments in Brazil will double over the next 12 Months, Many of these investments will be in the governments own Minha Casa Minha Vida Social Housing programme, meaning it's the ideal time to Invest In Brazil.

Politics and Governance of Brazil helping Investment in the Country Rise

Over the last three hundred years Brazil has experienced a number of different political systems. The earliest of these was when the territory was an agricultural colony, directly administered by the mother country Portugal. Gradually, immigration from Portugal and later from other European countries helped the population to swell with incomers from across the sea and the work and money they provided as important developmental investments in Brazil.



Over the last three hundred years Brazil has experienced a number of different political (and therefore economic) systems. The earliest of these was when the territory was an agricultural colony, directly administered by the mother country Portugal (and including only a relatively small coastal part of the current 3.3 million square mile nation). Gradually, immigration from Portugal and later from other European countries helped the population to swell with incomers from across the sea and the work and money they provided as important developmental investments in Brazil.

As the European domination spread northwards and westwards, governance changed as the scale of the dominion expanded. The local Amerindian populations were dominated, intermarried with, enslaved and dispossessed and to them were added the large numbers of African slaves brought in to the country to work on the white-owned farms and plantations. The Brazilian economy was taking off, although not of course on foundations any 21st century democrat would approve of. Nearly two hundred years ago, in 1822, Brazil provided a refuge for an exiled branch of the Portuguese royal family under Prince Pedro, the son of King John. The country formally became an independent empire under him and his successors as Emperor, which it remained for most of the nineteenth century until 1889. At that point there was a coup led by the military to establish an authoritarian type of 'republic'. This nominal structure, interspersed with dictatorships, lasted on and off in different forms for nearly a century.

More or less democratic elections were held for the first time in 1985. Since then there have been numerous parties and coalitions providing a number of different governments, nearly all of them compromises between many different factions. Broadly speaking, though most of the numerous parties can be said to fall into one or the other of two broad groups, internationally-oriented 'liberals' who hold that the country must be part of the wider world economy and nationalistic 'statists' who believe in state intervention in industry and commerce.

The commentator Ridenti has quoted the Cardoso Government as an example of the former, while the most recent Workers Party-led governments of ‘Lula’ da Silva or Dilma Rousseff represent the latter. However, these are broad brush-stroke classifications at best and elements of both do actually exist within either, although the proportions are different. At national level, the Government of Brazil has two Houses, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The third branch of administration, the so-called Executive is provided by the President and the members of the Cabinet. However, as a Federal Republic, there is a regional tier of government provided by the twenty-six states and their administrations plus an autonomous Federal District around the capital, Brasilia.

Finally there is the most 'local' manifestation of government and politics, the municipal level, comprising the mayors and councils running the towns and cities (no real legal distinction between the two). These three layers of government do have frictions and problems between them but generally speaking the interaction between the levels runs reasonably well. Each has its laid-out responsibilities, constitutions, budgets and laws and each can have an important effect on investment in Brazil, both domestic and international

A highly respected Investment News Website is predicting that investments in Brazil will double over the next 12 Months, Many of these investments will be in the governments own Minha Casa Minha Vida Social Housing programme, meaning it's the ideal time to Invest In Brazil.

Brazilian Government to stimulate Construction

On Wednesday this week the Brazilian government is set to announce a range of measures designed to boost the economy.

These will be centred on the construction and road-building sectors and will involve investment in the large scale purchase of heavy-duty equipment. Commentators report that the bulk of the items will comprise over 1300 road graders and nearly 3600 backhoes. A road grader is a large machine designed to level a stretch of ground or roadway in order to make a flat surface. A backhoe is an even more versatile piece of equipment. It’s essentially a kind of hydraulic-powered ‘excavator’comprising a strong digging-bucket at the end of an articulated arm, usually mounted on a vehicle such as a tractor or similar.

The device has many uses, both in road building or other applications such as building construction. According to the federal Development Minister, Fernando Pimental, throughout the country local municipalities of up to 50,000 residents will be eligible to apply for the equipment. Applications for this purpose will be opened/received as from July.

EcoHouse Developments offer secure and ethical ways to Invest In Brazil through Minha Casa Minha Vida social housing, EcoHouse are at the forefront of property development in Brazil

Brazil, Now a big hit with foreign investors

It's all we here about these days on the Investment News websites and forums, in the media or via word of mouth, The smart place to invest your money is Brazil, but why should we Invest in Brazil? is it safe and is any type of investment in the country a good one?

First of all remember to be vigilant, because once an investment type or product or even a country becomes popular with investors around the world and these investors start reporting good returns it opens the door to all the unscrupulous boiler room companies and dubious individuals eager to take your cash to line their own pocket and give you nothing in return, the worst culprits are the cold callers, recently highlighted on the BBC's Panorama program, who will call you up with an amazing deal for land or property offering a very high ROI ( Return on Investment) that is simply too good to be true. So if you are interested in getting good returns for your money, do your own research, never fall for the smooth talking cold calling salesmen and to be honest my advice is to never even engage in conversion with a cold caller, their pitches are all the same, a limited time deal that ends today, or he's chosen you to be part of a small group of investors that are all going to make it big, really! if it's so great why doesn't he invest himself? they will always want money today via a bank transfer or credit card and they all end the same way, you end up with either nothing or a worthless plot of land not worth the dodgy certificate that they sent you. It's also impossible to get your money back from these companies, they either change their phone numbers, disappear and set up under a new name or they are based in Spain and are not actually operating under UK legalisation.

These days there is no excuse to believe what someone simply tells you, no information is elusive or concealed, we have the internet search engines to find out what ever information we need about a product or a company, there are also forums and impartial investment news websites. and remember if an investment broker is offering a much higher rate of return than anyone else, then it's probably not legitimate, it's like finding a company online selling the laptop you want for £100 when every other website of store it selling it between £289 and £329, you can guarantee you'll be saying goodbye to your £100 and never seeing a laptop, Well, the same applies with investments.

So what should you be looking for if your want to invest in Brazil? What you should be looking for are well know investments that you know do actually work such as the Minha Casa Minha Vida social housing programme that is backed by the government in Brazil and the banks here in the UK. This scheme has been running now for three years and as long as you do actually invest in the scheme through a social housing developer and don't give your money to a cold caller claiming to be involved in the scheme then you are certain to make a profit and the good news is that investments are short term and you can get your money back , plus profits with 12 months, again don't wait for that cold call, do some research, google social housing brazil or minha casa minha vida, and when you find a developer that seems reputable don't stop there, ask to see completed units, units under construction, photos, videos, a due diligence report. And above all never hand over money direct. Ethical participants in the scheme hold you funds safely in an Escrow Facility here in the UK, protected by UK law, meaning your funds can only be used to build these homes and nothing else. Play it safe and cautious and you too can enjoy the benefits of investing in Brazil.

Minha Casa Minha Vida Progress to Date

About three years ago (March 2009 to be precise) the Brazilian Government finally launched a long-awaited scheme to try and ease the country’s chronic housing shortage. After long consideration it was decided that the main aim in this particular programme was to build and provide decent, affordable homes for people of modest incomes to buy.

It was intended that the approach would be a combined one of the type known as PPP (Public-private partnership) elsewhere in the world but that this co-operative venture between the two sectors would be one especially tailored for Brazilian conditions. One feature was the seeking of short to medium term private investment, with firm guarantees
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Obviously other social housing schemes also existed in the country and these continued in parallel, mainly targeting the rental sector.

However, this new purchasers’ scheme was something quite novel. It was dubbed ‘Minha Casa Minha Vida’ (My house, My life) and was intended to provide people of the burgeoning lower middle classes with a property-owning stake in their country, for the very first time. To assist them, a whole new range of mortgages for individuals was created and launched, of a type which hadn’t existed up to then.
To put the scheme ’in a nutshell’, the aim is to build three million new homes of this kind by the end of 2014, carefully distributed throughout the regions and states of Brazil. The project is now well into its second phase of development and has proved, as expected, immensely popular. This is so much true that when local schemes are launched, there is a draw among eligible applicants to determine priority of allocation (at least among those on the more modest incomes of the two levels of eligibility).

There are firm qualifying conditions for both levels. The main one is to keep the scheme for the people it is intended for. For example, applicants on the basic rung may only have incomes up to three times minimum wage and be pre-allocated suitable mortgages by Caixa. Tighter conditions apply to the ‘upper tier’ of people on incomes of between 3 and 10 times the minimum wage. These particular homes are sold by real-estate agents according to ‘first come first served’.

There is no doubt that  Minha Casa Minha Vida is fulfilling its promise of making a significant dent in the country’s housing shortage. Brazilians acknowledge that there is still far to go before homelessness has been eradicated but they are justifiably proud of this scheme. The Ecohouse Group has, if anything, been even more proud to be in the forefront of this marvellous project

Brazil sees growth of GMO production.

For those (domestic or foreign) organisations interested in Investing in Brazil, agriculture has always been viewed as something of a complex item. The same is true of course of individuals looking for a secure home for their money. On the one hand, people (and other creatures) will always need to eat, so a steady if unexciting market can be predicted.

On the other, agriculture for non-food bio-fuel production has seemed a very tempting alternative, though not without potential disadvantages, to say the least.

Then there is another, highly controversial aspect. Quite simply, it’s the rapid spread of genetically-modified organisms (GMO’S) used for crop growth. This has fierce advocates who see at as the magic solution to agriculture’s problems for decades to come. Alternately, there are those in Brazil and elsewhere who view the method as essentially gambling with the safety of millions of people. Among other things they quote how easy it seems for genetically-altered flora to ‘overspill’ into the growth cycle of other more ‘natural’
plant life nearby.

Whatever one’s opinion,the figures are huge. In 2011 in Brazil, according to CNA ( Brazil’s Agriculture and Livestock Confederation) GMO’s -in particular corn (maize) and soya- have spread rapidly. They now comprise nearly thirty percent of the country’s food growth, to a value of $R 58 Billion.

There’s no doubt that many see this newest aspect of agriculture to be an intriguing possibility for so-called ‘ Alternative Investments ’ in a growing part of the economy. If it works as expected, it will benefit many millions of people.