A Place In The Sun Live Earls Court London 30th March to 1st April

Come and meet the EcoHouse Team at 'A Place In The Sun Live' Overseas Property Investment Show at  Earls Court London on the 30th March to 1st April 2012.

Europe's largest overseas property show opens in London in eleven weeks. We exhibited at A Place in the Sun Live in Birmingham back in September 2011 and had a unbelievable response and gained 12 new investors for our Arco Iris Minha Casa Minha Vida Social Housing Scheme in Brazil.


We are expecting this next event to be even more successful because not only have we launched 2 more Arco Iris phases opening the doors for hundreds of new investors but we will also be promoting 2 luxury resorts in Pipa, North East, Brazil, that we will be developing in 2012..

Rio Rentals Surge This Month

Consider Rio de Janiero for a minute. One would think that recent international economic problems together with internal Brazilian ones (such as the floods in the South East) would tend to depress real estate holiday movement.  This might seem especially true when one takes into account the already huge living costs associated with any of the nicer parts of the city.


However, because of the strong continuing interest (and inevitable competition for temporary housing) in coming to Rio, particularly for the holiday season running up to Carnival, it’s still the case that anyone with a decent apartment to rent out can find themselves 'laughing all the way to the Bank' !

For the country as a whole, Flavio Dino, president of Embratur confirms Brazil’s growing popularity with international visitors. He reminded listeners that the country hosted visits last year from nearly five and a half million tourists from overseas, generating US$6.4 Billion in extra foreign exchange.

This too has an impact on popular destinations such as Rio, where, to put it bluntly, foreign visitors and their money are directly competing with Brazilians from elsewhere in the country for ‘goodies’ such as nice accommodation for the holiday season.

All this has some interesting implications for investment opportunities in Brazil, in particular those relating to property, whether temporary or not. Remember, it’s not just the more popular areas of Rio such as Copacabana or Ipanema and it’s not just in ‘high season’ either.

Other districts (and indeed cities) and other times of the year can also provide very lucrative returns from this area of Brazil investment.

NEW PHONE AND INTERNET SCHEME FOR ORDINARY BRAZILIANS

Recent Brazilian news includes an interesting initiative for 2012. It’s been confirmed by the national Government that a new communications scheme will be launched this year, aimed at (and designed for) people on modest incomes. The deal will include both mobile phone (cell phone) and internet access and the plans will sell for up to $30 per month.


The country’s Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo has announced the main features of the new scheme. These involve a certain amount of flexibility as regards carriers coupled with comparatively generous limits on usage for either element (phone and internet) of the new deal.

S. Bernardo went on to explain further. To ensure that only the intended and targeted groups are able to access the arrangement, applicants must demonstrate that they are in receipt of some form of government welfare or benefit or be registered with CadUnico, the Brazilian Single Registry for Social Programmes.
The entire scheme is being jointly developed at national level by ‘Anatel’ ( the National Communications Agency) working together with the Ministry itself. The joint enterprise has invited the proposals and participation of prospective companies.

In Brazil at present there is an estimated total of more than 240 million mobile phones, an average of about 1.2 for every man, woman and child. Clearly, the new programme will have wide-ranging implications for ordinary Brazilians. For one thing, it will make more information more readily available for people in their daily lives. It will consequently affect patterns of consumer choice and spending, for everything from daily groceries and entertainment all the way up the scale to participation in the exciting new ‘Minha Casa Minha Vida' affordable homes scheme.

BRAZIL : Industrial production increases.

Recent statistics show that Brazilian industry generally increased itsproduction in November, reversing to some extent the slight decline ofthe previous three months.

The figures were released on 5th January by IGBE (the BrazilianInstitute of Geography and Statistics). While the overall total of‘factory output’ is up a little ( zero point three percent), thatmasks some interesting variations in the individual categories thatmake it up. In general terms, two-thirds of them are up whileone-third are down, bringing about the slight combined increase.

Growth was marked most notably in equipment and machinery products,with a comparatively healthy four per cent. However, this must be seenas only partly reversing the cumulative 9% loss over the previous twomonths. Still, it was an increase. Others emerged in sectors ofproductive industry such as printing and publishing (nearly 3.5percent), metal products (4 %) and motor vehicles (one and a half).However, the leader in increases this month was indisputably clothingat 9.4%.

Of the nine main categories which declined in the monthly total, themain items worth mentioning are Oil refining and alcohol products(both over 5%, reversing previous increases), computers and relateditems (8%) and other electronic equipment (seven and a half).

Clearly, the results, sector by sector are variable and therefore thebest overall indicator is the slight total increase. This has obviousimplications for Brazil’s balance of payments, exports and imports andultimately interest rates, all of which affect the country’s vitalinward flow of international investment.

This in turn affects the ability of Government (national, state orlocal) to deal with relief for natural disasters such as the recentfloods. It of course also includes longer-term projects including theaffordable housing programme, Minha Casa Minha Vida.

Aid for Minas Gerais

Since October last year there has been a serious environmental situation in the South East of Brazil. Unusually heavy rains (and consequent serious flooding) has meant severe dislocation in many districts, causing disruption in infrastructure and services, homelessness for thousands and even several instances of death.


In particular, the State of Minas Gerais has been badly affected in these ways. Obviously the general situation extends well beyond its borders but many of the worst results are contained within them.

On Tuesday of this week, national President Dilma Rousseff called on the State Governor, Antonio Anastasia to provide additional relief funding for the worse-affected areas. These include over 50 local towns and cities who are in an emergency situation, plus a similar number in a lesser (but still significant) condition.  As well as these regional initiatives, The President also promised federal support through national government agencies.

The climatic problem is serious. However, the actual death toll, while tragic, has been comparatively low. The numbers directly attributable are still in single figures.

In a lesser sense, over two million residents of the State have been affected in all sorts of ways by the rains with nearly ten thousand people made directly homeless.

Needless to say, the genearal economy of Minas Gerais has been badly affected and the ‘knock-on’ effect for general social progress has been serious. It is hoped in government circles (both national and state) that international investment will also help with the recovery of the State, in tandem with the public sector efforts. In particular, it is felt that homelessness must be tackled urgently, either the short-term problem caused by the floods or the longer-term structural housing problem which Dilma and her administration ahave always been so avid to tackle.

article source : EcoHouse News

Dilma's First Year…Overseas Visits

As she concludes her first year in Office, it’s interesting to look at the international Presidential visits made by Brazil’s Dilma Roussoff. These have been fewer, by the way than those conducted in either of his two terms’ first years of her predecessor and mentor, former President Lula da Silva.

However, both premiers have always shared the view that the BRIC nation’s overseas relations are of great importance. This is not least because of the crucial task of attracting ever-increasing overseas investments, in particular overseas property investment, to Brazil’s expanding economy. They’ve constantly emphasised, as they must, the message ‘Invest in Brazil’

Some commentators have formed the opinion that in terms of style, ‘Dilma’ tends to be more practical and discreet (and less ideological) than ‘Lula’ and point to several marked achievements, as they see them. These include her successful and impressive address to the UN in New York and of course the conclusion of the 'Apple' products assembly deal with China.

Dilma Roussoff’s actual travels for the year list simply as follows:

• A total of thirteen overseas visits
• Fifteen countries
• altogether 41 days out of Brazil

So far President Dilma Roussoff has not yet visited any Arab countries. This is a fact used as the basis for certain criticisms from some quarters. However she and the coalition government she heads deny these (while pointing to their criticism, for example, of the violence in Syria) and instead emphasis the remarkable achievements of Brazil’s new regime in many other directions.

PRESIDENT ROUSSOFF : "WE WILL CONTINUE TRANSFORMING"

Speaking last Monday at her latest 'cafe com a presidenta' event, President Dilma Roussoff of Brazil re-emphasised that in her view, 2011 was a good year for her country. She prefaced her remarks by the mission-statement and motto "We will continue transforming the present and building a beautiful future for our children and grandchildren"

As well as speaking generally about the progress and prospects of inflation and GDP she emphasised certain specifics. Her comments were not of course entirely objective, as the timescale does include the first year of the President's own first term of office.

However, she listed some solid achievements of herself and her administration. These included a) the creation of more than two million new jobs nationwide, b) a definite reduction of social inequality and (as of this month) an increase in the national minimum wage to a new level of Reies 622.

In addition it must be remembered that the now-entrenched ‘thirteenth month’ payment convention is now far more widespread.

As from March this year there will be a further easing of taxes for more than five million small business people (self employed), thereby boosting the entrepreneur base of this sector of the economy.
However, for those of us concerned with the progress of the Affordable Housing business/movement, Caixa Economica Federal and Banco do Brasil confirm that progress is on course. A total in excess of Reies 125 Billion will have been committed by the target date of 2014 to the 'Minha Casa Minha Vida' scheme, as promised.
Article Source : EcoHouse News