Well as I said before the cost of living is high for people that live in Brazil.For somebody coming here from Europe it is cheap for them when they are on holiday.Do you not read the property scams that are going on at the moment,the companies going bankrupt,people losing their hard earned cash to so called propert developers??!!

Brazil is expensive!

People (in this thread) who disagree are most likely investors that are locked in or bought and are justifing their situation, and the thought of traveling and investing in another area of Latin America is just to much a hassle for them. Money, time and 'starting over' comes to mind.

Not only from an Ex Pat perspective but also from a Brazilian perspective. You can live much cheaper in other south and central American countries--I know because I have experience in this area. The same $ you buy in Natal, Recife or Fortaleza (nice 2/2 Flat the beach), you could easily buy in Punta Cana DR-on the Beach, maybe even bigger, the Pacific side of Costa Rica (no violence Whatsoever), Colombia's caribbean coastal cities of Cartagena, Barranquilla, Playa Blanco, and some small islands in the Caribbean the public has no idea about.

Euro people love northeast Brazil because they don't know any better. They did not travel enough to know other options/areas in Latin America. I know about Beach front property right now that is equal/nicer/cheaper than any city in NE Brazil-but that information costs me big $ to find out. Traveling, getting screwed, robbed, assaulted, scammed, building relationships, knowing the right people, etc.

I've easily spent over $100,000 in travel expenses to know what I know now.

Sorry, I won't divulge my iinfo here--my consulting fees are $75 hourly.

Thats a lot of money.I hope you are doing well and you obviously have learnt from hands on experience which is far better than any financial forcast or Masters Degree in Economics!We only learn from our mistakes and for many it is their last hard earned cash!

Thats not just Brazil!! There are scams everywhere! If you go to an unheard of company then you are more likely to be screwed. If you invest in a more reputable company that has other finished projects eg Capuche. Then you are much safer.

Capuche is a reputable company,but they tend to develop popular small 2/3 apts,but they did offer value for money in the past,but there are so many of Capuche all over the place offering the same style nothing new and exciting.

I disagree.

Brazil is known throughout the world as ground zero for scams. Everything from pocket theft to huge government scams. Do a search on Google, I read [on google] a 'Top 50 Scam Countries in the World' and sure enough Brazil was #1. And most pople who get scammed rarely ever talk about, or want to. Right now I know five people that got screwed in Brazil (2 in my group-they are still active investors) and none would come on this Forum and post about it. Other Latin countries have less scamming -- thats a fact. why? Not sure... but I think there might be something deeply engrained in Brazilian culture that makes people do the most unethical things when their back is against the wall, or just plain bad character. Remember the Nigerian Email Scam that milked millions of $ from innocent people around the world? Guess who? Recife, Brazil! That's right, some lowlife but highly intelligent Geek Brasileiros working out of Olinda.

French 'do gooders' trying to make a difference in the world helping the poor [in Rio de Janeiro]: BBC NEWS | Americas | French aid workers killed in Rio

I couldn't find anything on Google, so I would appreciate a link to the article on 'Top 50 Scam Countries in the World'.

I always thought the Nigeria was number one, that type of email scam is called a 419 scam named after the Nigerian law against it. Advance fee fraud - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has info on it in all of it's guises.

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Brazil Property | Pipa Brazil

Not sure where I saw the Top 50, but it's on google. I was informed by numerous sources the Nigerian scam was based in Brazil and manifested by Brazilians.

Are you just talking about one individual scam? As there is a new one out of Nigeria every day.

Check your spam mail and look for emails from the late President's son who has got 60 million that you can have 10% of, etc.... that is a classic 419 scam.

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Brazil Property | Pipa Brazil

Brazil is the most unethical country that I have ever spent time in and am aware of.....period.

It's one of the reasons why I roll my eyes at gringos that think they're going to come here a month or two out of the year, meet a few local people and make friends with one or two, and think they're going to get actual market prices on property.

To this very day, even though I am well known in Aracaju and have been mistaken numerous times for a gaucho (southern brazilian), that's how fluent I am in the language, still to this day people try to rip me off (before they hear me speak).....and it's because I have the face of a gringo.

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