Purchase real estate prices all over Brazil have fallen a combined 3.47% in real prices the first months of 2015 according to the Fipe-Zap index. The index collected real estate prices in twenty Brazilian cities and measured them against inflation, registering monthly price rises below inflation for the sixth time in a row.
The latest Knight Frank’s Global Real Estate Index released this month has Brazil ranking No. 3 in the world and No. 1 in the Americas for rising home prices. Only ridiculously expensive Hong Kong and Dubai, which are not countries, have seen prices rise more. So in fact, no single country has seen its housing prices increase as much as Brazil.
Brazil on Thursday exempted foreign investors from paying a financial transaction tax on purchases of real estate investment trusts traded on the country's stock exchange. Since early last year the government of President Dilma Rousseff has aimed to develop funding alternatives for local builders, many of which are overly dependent on loans from state development bank BNDES, the main source of long-term corporate financing in Brazil.