As the property markets in Rio and Sao Paulo heat up, GTIS plans to invest $810 million in Brazil.

 

Bikinis and beaches aren't the only things that are common in Brazil these days. Real estate is also in high demand. For sale Qatar | Lusail Properties

Brazil, Latin America's economic superpower, is currently experiencing a new round of real estate activity:

GTIS Partners, headquartered in New York City, reported that it has raised $810.2 million from an investor pool to invest in a variety of ventures in Brazil.

The Alana II Building in Sao Paulo was sold for $18.4 million by Standard Life Investments, a 187-year-old company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland.

According to new research from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Brazil's Gross Domestic Product would comfortably exceed that of Europe and the United States. Property prices have also risen as a result of these figures. Prices per square foot for apartment condos in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, for example, are now higher than in Washington, DC and New York City.

According to Ernst & Young, demand for new hotel properties is increasing as developers prepare for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Thomas M. Feldstein, an international land trust expert, has been employed as managing director and general counsel by GTIS, which has a Sao Paulo office. Feldstein was a managing director at Tishman Speyer in New York City.

 

GTIS Partners President Tom Shapiro said in a press release that his company and partners agreed to make the large investment in Brazilian real estate projects after determining that the country's economy is still high and that real estate is undersupplied.

He also mentioned that GTIS sees a market opportunity in Brazil due to the scarcity of experienced private equity real estate managers in the Latin American region.

GTIS has 14 million square feet constructed or under construction in Brazil, according to Shapiro, including 8,000 for-sale apartments, 2.5 million square feet of office space, and three million square feet of warehouse space in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

 

Standard Life Investments is a company that invests in people.

Standard Life Investments received 11.60 million British pounds from a Brazilian wealth management family for the extensively renovated Alana II Building in Sao Paulo. $1.5694 US = 1 British Sterling Pound (GBP).

The property had been owned by Standard Life since 2009. In the last two years, the global fund manager said it had raised rents by 79 percent and generated good returns for its investors.

 

PricewaterhouseCoopers is a professional services firm.

According to Dean Thomas, managing director of agents at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Brazil is "the most dominant country in Latin America right now and is looking less and less like an emerging market every day" in his firm's new Emerging Trends in Real Estate study 2012.

"One of the best property investment destinations in the world," Thomas says of Brazil.

 

Hotel production in Brazil is expected to increase in the coming years, according to Ernst & Young, as the country prepares to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. According to Ernst & Young, business travel, leisure trips, and new events are all on the rise.

In its January membership survey, the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) noted that Sao Paulo had risen from 26th place on the list of top global cities for foreign investment in 2011 to fourth place in 2012.

Despite most observers, researchers, and consultants' glowing assessments of the country, they all agree that Brazil still has a long way to go in terms of customer service. They emphasize the need for improvements in hotels, restaurants, transportation, and tourist attractions.