Saturday, September 19, 2009
What? Another Update? Absolutely!
Thieny & her dancers as she sings on a local TV showHi there!
Back again so soon, you say?
Well, yes! I'm trying to turn over a new stone!
A couple of things are interesting.
First of all, the hits to Fortaleza Adventure just keep coming. They mostly seem to be from North America, mainly the US, but also from the Scandanavian countries.
I can pass along one tip for anyone reading this who has a thought for coming to visit Fortaleza and that is that accomodation HAS to be booked as far in advance as possible.
Even though there are many building going up in the area, there are still way too few apartments and flats available in the best area, Meireles.
I tend to discount both Iracema and Mucuripe (either end of the city beach) as not desirable because of security issues.
For instance, I have people contacting me about coming here over the period of Natal and revillion, Christmas and New Year's.
It is already almost impossible to find a flat or apartment of reasonable price in Meireles or close to the beach.
It's still to be determined if the influx of new units that will take place when the current crop of condos has been constructed will change the vacancy rate.
The rate of real estate inflation continues as well so if you DO have intentions of having Fortaleza as part of your real estate investigation, I would advise speed.
One flat I know of in a good building went from the buying price of R$70,000 to the selling price of R$90,000 in 1 year! Nothing was changed in the unit so it is still available to be added to the hotel/condo building's "pool" if desired.
The other thing I have found important to mention is that the streets in the city have really gone downhill since the rainy season. The combination of the cool rain and the tropical heat before and after really played havoc with the surfaces.
This is not to mention the quality of contruction in the first place, which was not great.
If you notice, they don't use crushed rock for the roadbed but rock broken into pieces! This, in time, creates the horribly bumpy streets! Plus the fact the surface laid down is remarkably thin. Also the city takes absolutely no time to start ripping up the pavement to either fix or replace or install water or waste pipes.
Anyway, another election is always the time when the political machine running the city decides to appease the populace by re-surfacing.
Until next time, take care!
P.S. By the way, why not visit the forum on the BrazilAmerica.com site and check out the post on Fortaleza real estate I just added.
