US Investors Survey Brazil Opportunity

A number of overseas investors are looking to jump into Brazilian real estate for the first time. Funds both large and small, primarily based in the US, are examples of the interested parties spotted at the LatinFinance Brazil Real Estate Finance, Investment & Securitization seminar, held yesterday in Sao Paulo. While unsure about the format and subsectors of real estate they would target, newcomers see in Brazil the kinds of technical factors that led to a boom in Mexican real estate several years ago, say executives at the funds. Brazil, however, has greater scale and a more diversified asset base in which to invest, they add. Among delegates expressing interest in the country’s still hot real estate market are JER Partners – apparently eyeing a new fund for Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Peru – and Explorador, a San Francisco based hedge fund seeking to partner up with another US investor to raise $500m for LatAm real estate. Also feeling out the markets are New York based HCP Real Estate Investors, Palo Alto based Broadreach Capital Partners, and Prudential, which has real estate investments elsewhere in the region.