As Brazil sinks into its worst political and economic crisis in recent memory, real estate executives from Miami will visit the country to promote South Florida to potential buyers. A handful of executives from the Miami Association of Realtors, including its chief executive, will attend IV Convensi, an annual real-estate conference and expo, which expects to attract more than 4,000 brokers and investors from Brazil. The three-day event starting on Sept. 13th will take place in Curitiba, the capital of Paraná state. Brazil has consistently led all global consumers searching for South Florida real estate on the Miami Association of Realtors’ website.
RELATED: Brazilians' Unending Love for Miami “Brazilians will always be interested in Miami regardless of economic and political developments in Brazil,” said Lynda Fernandez, senior vice president of public relations at the Miami association. “Further, historically, Miami is an even bigger draw when there is economic or political turbulence abroad.” Brazilians rank third among foreign homebuyers in South Florida, according to the 2014 survey by the National Association of Realtors, with 11% of all international deals, behind Venezuelans (16%) and Argentinians (12%). This is the first time the Miami association will have a booth at Convensi, part of a multiyear program to lure more buyers from Brazil, Fernandez said. Previously, the group promoted Miami and South Florida to Brazilians through several partnerships with local trade groups and trade missions with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. Brazil is currently in the middle of a deep economic crisis—the currency, the real, exited active trading on Friday at its lowest level against the U.S. dollar since 2002. Standard & Poor’s stripped the country’s sovereign debt of its coveted investor-grade rating—and a growing corruption scandal that has produced calls for the president to be impeached. As of 2013, nearly three million Brazilians lived outside their country of 200 million, according to data from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry cited by the Miami association. One-third of those expats lives in the U.S. Companies that monitor Brazilians doing business in Florida believe that about 250,000 to 300,000 Brazilians now live in the state. According to statistics cited by the association, Brazilians have a cumulative investment of $1.7 billion in Miami and spend an average of $495,000 per home in Florida, compared with $245,000 among all buyers in Florida. Write to Andrea López Cruzado at andrea.lopez@dowjones.com Follow Mansion Global on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Write to us at info@mansionglobal.com