Praia Grande celebrates the launch of the Minha Casa Minha Vida Social Housing Programme

Praia Grande is a notable city in the state of Sao Paolo in Brazil. In this coastal municipality there are about a quarter of a million people but this number has been rising steadily in recent years. The exact location of the city is Latitude 24.0 degrees south and Longitude 46.4 degrees west. The district has the historical distinction of being one of the earliest settled parts of colonial Brazil and Portuguese immigrants started coming to the site shortly after 1532 when explorer Martim Alfonso first arrived.

The earliest settlement in the location was named Sao Vincente (St.Vincent) and in fact the original village remained legally part of what later became Praia Grande until the mid 1960's. By this time, of course, the population of the whole area had increased massively. This was in keeping with the general situation in most of this part of coastal Brazil. Nowadays tourism remains very important for the local economy and to boost this industry (and also to help the wider community) Praia Grande has redeveloped in recent years. This is particularly true of its whole transport-related infrastructure. The programme for paving the streets and roads of the municipal area now covers the vast majority of them. It's also notable that the major connections to other centres have improved tremendously too, largely to the so called 'Highway of Immigrants' and the major highway, Route 700.

Until comparatively recent times—the 1990's---most of the city's inhabitants tended to live in or near the Praia Grande beach area. However, at that time something of a construction boom started in the city, fuelled by large scale urbanization and landscaping works. This had the effect of swelling the population, with the huge influx of people coming to this district to seek work in the new economy. Since then, broadly speaking, 'Praia' is now seen as being made up of three main districts. These are the so-called Headquarters area, the Samana area in the highlands on the edge of the city and of course Solemar, near the municipal border with neighbouring Mongagua. The city is recognised these days, by both State and National authorities, as being not only an important tourist location but also a 'Spa'. This has important implications for tourism of course, with its implication of water-borne health and activities, in short an officially recognised 'bathing resort'. It also has benefits for the city of course, as places with 'spa' status get more money from the state government!

Praia Grande was one of the very first cities in Brazil to embrace fully new communications technology. This was no truer than in the establishment of the 'information superhighway' in the area, connecting by means of fibre-optics, all the government and municipal offices in the city. It also made possible one of the widest networks in the world of CCTV surveillance cameras throughout the public streets and spaces in the urban area. The 'Infoway' also allows the streamlining of medical care for local citizens as details of medical history, treatment; prescriptions and so on can be quickly and efficiently exchanged as needed.

All in all, Praia is an interesting place to live and work and with the upcoming minha casa minha vida developments is now also a very interesting place for property investors looking at Investing In Brazil