Brazilians lead South Florida foreign homebuyers

An influx of Brazilian travelers in South Florida isn’t just transforming the tourism industry — it’s also propping up the high-end residential real estate market in the tri-country region. According to Edgardo Defortuna of Fortune International, that’s thanks in large part to a prohibitively expensive real estate market in Brazil. For example, an apartment at the Jade Ocean in Sunny Isles Beach that sells for $1.6 million would currently go for around $2.5 million in Brazil’s Belo Horizonte, said Defortuna, who recently opened a Sao Paulo office and is now seeing about a quarter of all new sales at his firm go to Brazilians. “Today, [Brazilians are] the most important foreign sector of the South Florida market,” he added. Agents say Miami Beach and Sunny Isles Beach are popular locations for those buying vacation homes for themselves, while Brickell and downtown Miami are popular with investors.

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