No signs of crisis in Ceará property, car sales or industry

No signs of crisis in Ceará property, car sales or industry

The economy in Ceará in northeast Brazil continues to move in the opposite direction to the rest of Brazil. In Ceará, the property market, car sales and the industrial sector are all growing while those in the country as a whole register negative numbers.

 

Statistics for GDP growth in the state of Ceará during the first quarter of this year already showed the huge divide between the Ceará and Brazilian economies. While the economy in Ceará grew by 1.05 per cent, the Brazilian fell by 1.6 per cent. Latest figures for June in key sectors of the Ceará economy show a similar pattern.

 

Market for cars growing

In car sales, for example, Ceará is described as registering “outstanding figures” by Fenabrave, the national federation of car distributors. Sales of cars in Ceará in June rose by 1.98 per cent on May and by 0.41 per cent annually.

 

The luxury car sector is having a particularly good year in Ceará as locals buy the latest models released by the high-end brands. Distributors of these vehicles in Ceará calculate that sales have gone up by 28 per cent in the first six months of this year.

 

Market for property growing

The same upward tendency can be found in the Ceará property market. Figures for the state make good reading – during the first four months of the year, launches of new property increased by 37.61 per cent and sales rose by 2.46 per cent.

 

Analysts claim that the bullish Ceará property figures are the fruit of the twin pillars of no outside players and lack of supply. All new-build property developers in Ceará are locals and the state has not accumulated high levels of stock, unlike many Brazilian states.

 

The low stock of property in Fortaleza, in particular, leads experts to believe that the Ceará market will continue to grow. According to André Montenegro, president of the Ceará Civil Construction association (Sinduscon-CE), as long as there is a housing shortage, new projects will continue to be built in Ceará. “While Brazil as a whole is showing negative figures, those in Ceará continue to be positive,” he said in an interview with the O Povo newspaper.

 

Adalberto Machado, managing director of Mota Machado, one of the largest construction companies in the area, agrees and points out that the Ceará property market is still promising, albeit moving at a more sustainable speed. He points out that buyers still need to buy a home and have the funds, but they are no longer in a hurry. “This has made them more selective,” he said.

 

The industrial sector in Ceará also mirrors the state’s buoyant economic situation. Industrial production went up by 3.6 per cent in Ceará in May compared to June. At national level, figures for industrial output showed an 8.8 per cent decrease with those in Sao Paulo dropping by 13.7 per cent.

 

Source: O Povo newspaper

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