Affordable Housing Arrives in Porto Alegre Brazil

Nov 9
07:28

2012

Paul Dexter

Paul Dexter

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The varied economy of Porto Alegre Brazil provides great potential for long term investment as well as some short term investments in a large number of projects including the Minha Casa Minha Vida social housing programme.

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Porto Alegre is possibly the most cheerfully-named city in the whole of Brazil. It translates into "Happy (or Merry) Harbour" and if names matter then that one got the place off to a good start. At present it's a large sized settlement with over a million and a half people within the actual city limits and three times as many if you include the whole metropolitan area.

The location is in the far south of Brazil,Affordable Housing Arrives in Porto Alegre Brazil Articles not far from Uruguay. Porto Alegre is the capital in fact of the country's southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul. Historically, the development of the area has been very interesting. At the beginning, 'PA' was founded by immigrants from the Portuguese Azores Islands in the mid eighteen century, rather later than many of the other coastal cities. In the 1880's and 1890's other waves of incomers arrived from many other parts of the world, mainly Europe (and especially countries such as Germany and Italy).

The geography of the site is very unusual. PA is on the eastern side of Guaiba Lake. Nearby, five rivers meet to form a huge freshwater lagoon, Lagoa dos Patos, (the name means "lagoon of the ducks") which has become a very important port and is also surrounded by a wide-ranging industrial area. Industry is thriving in the region and the overall GDP of the city nowadays is over R$30 Billion. Main activities locally are services of all kinds (about 60 percent), productive industry accounts for about 30%. The leather processing and shoe making industries are important and mainly located in the satellite town of Novo Hamburgo. It's estimated that more than 80 percent of Brazil's shoe exports originate here. Other notable industries are petrochemicals, cars and computer parts.

The region is also a centre for the surrounding agricultural region. This involves mainly tobacco, rice, peaches and plums, plus cassava (which is mainly produced on smaller-sized farms). A large proportion of all this is exported through the excellent port. Because of its excellent infrastructure, facilities and climate, the city is something of a 'magnet' for people who flock from other parts of Brazil. Things aren't perfect by any means-there is an unemployment rate of seven percent after all but this is much smaller than many other towns and cities in the country. Per capita earnings/income among people in the area is nearly R$ 21,000 per year which is very impressive to most Brazilians and helps to explain the steady immigration to the city. Regarding these people of Porto Alegre as a whole, nearly seventy percent of the population is concentrated in the northern zone where the city centre is also located. On several occasions since the turn of the century, the city has hosted meetings of the World Social Forum and in 2006 the Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches was held here.

As regards potential for returns on investment in the area, there are a great number of good prospects. The varied and diverse economy of the city area provides good potential returns for both long term investment and short term investment in a wide range of industries and services including argiculture, land and clean energy, and more recently the Minha Casa Minha Vida affordable housing programme has arrived in the state bringing in a great deal of foreign investment.