Quote:
Originally Posted by Golfingworld
Ralph, You are going to "scare the shxx" out of a lot of people on here that have already made down payments! My guess is that these downpayments, if paid offshore are in effect the Agents commissions. But I know what you are saying, Brazil seems no different to the way Spain and Portugal was 25 years ago in terms of paperwork and currency control. Every time I go to Brazil I see attitudes, behaviour and culture that I saw 30 years ago in Spain/Portugal. Even today Portugal hasn't changed so much..Spain is very progressive. But, they changed and liberalised (mainly due to EC Membership) and although Brazil moves slowly they will also have to change to meet the economic growth they are looking for. It is just not practical for their economy to grow and receive external investment unless they free up their Banking system. Sooner or later they will have to decide if they really want to become a major economy and if they decide yes, then the banking and burocracy has to be changed..otherwise foreign investment will just walk away and invest elsewhere where it is easier. You can see this very situation with the flight access which is controlled and limited as a cartel...these are old fashioned ways and eventually it will have to change in all aspects.
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Agree 100% GW...but the fact remains today that Brazil is extremely beaurocratic, and beaurocratic to the point of ridiculous.
As far as scaring the **** out of people.....
GOOD! I would rather scare the **** out of them after they've made an initial investment than after they've paid 40-50, or 100K sterling!
There is currently a beachfront housing development 4 kilometers from where I am living at the moment. I built a large house in an existing condominium here in Aracaju. Bought the lot, contracted the architect, the engineer, and organized the entire project from lawyers and accountants to bricklayers and backhoes. This project that is 4 kilometers from me is called Viva Vida. It was built by a gentleman named Marcos Mattos and was sold to the english via a gentleman named Howard Davis in England and also a brazilian by the name of Joaquim. Seventy homes were built and 33 were sold to the english.
Approximately one year ago I had the pleasure of meeting two of the english homeowners. They had paid for their properties 2-3 years ago in many cases and have yet to this day to get their deeds!! They asked me for my help and I took them to my lawyer. I have excellent lawyers btw and excellent connections here in Brazil...even on a national scale. One of our lawyers, and my best friend here in Brazil, his brother is the national president of the OAB and his uncle is a brazilian minister. They are a very honest family, people....something that is not easy to find for many "gringos" here in Brazil.
After some research the first thing both my lawyer and I found was that the english had been charged anywhere from 50% to 150% more than the brazilians that purchased properties in the same condominium!!! Now, let me preface this by saying that all the english bought furniture packages and the brazilians didnt....but this furniture costs around 5,000 to 7500 reais....NOT 75,000!! Then we go to the builder, Mr. Mattos. Well he tells us that he's never been paid for the "deeds", which was a 10,000 reais charge btw. Deeds are not a fixed amount!! They are a percentage of your purchase price or evaluation price placed by the local gov't. The catch was this 10,000 reais for the deeds had already been paid by all the english two years ago and more to Howard Davis!!
So now we have a situation of "he said, she said". Yet another reason why you NEVER pay an agent in England for a Brazilian property!