I have decided that this particular blog should be standalone. You'll see why.
Topic: Brazilians taking the piss when it comes to renting out apartments because you're a gringo.
This is a message for every Brazilian out there who has a really shitty piece of property and thinks "hey, I won't refurbish it, I'll just rent it out in the state it's in - cockroaches and all - to a gringo who will pay twice the price for it". REALITY CHECK: WE WON'T. Why do Brazilians think that tiny/old substandard apartments that haven't been cleaned, painted, properly furnished or kitted out with half-decent kitchen equipment are ok to let out on a short-term furnished basis to gringos? I mean, they wouldn't accept that level of crapness for themselves, why do they think that we would?
I come from the 1st world, ok? Yeah, I'm willing to spend a bit of money but I also want some "vale a pena" (value for money) and there is such a place called THE INTERNET where I can check what the normal market rate is in the area, dipshit. I might not be fluent in Portuguese but I can bloody well navigate myself around zap.com.br. I can even factor in the condo fee, roughly how much the bills are costing you, and add a bit more for the fact the place is furnished and work out a fair price - with a profit margin and everything!
We went to see a couple of apartments before New Year's. One of them was old, seriously dirty, the little furniture it did have was really old and in bad condition, it was missing a bed (supposed to be a 2-bed flat), didn't have a washing machine or a decent table to eat on (Brazilians always have a decent table to eat on in their homes: we know), and one of the bedrooms didn't have a door on it. No, scratch that, it was missing a wall. We turned that one down.
The other one was in a cheap part of a decent area, building was nice, but the place was fucking tiny. They had clearly taken an ok-ish-sized one bedroom flat and put in an extra wall to make two bedrooms. Again, the flat wasn't particularly clean, furniture was cheap and tatty, there was barely enough room to swing a cat around in the living room, the fridge freezer was about 20 years old and probably hadn't been defrosted in that long either. Plus, they wanted about R$2700 for it all in, which was just a joke.
A Canadian guy in our Portuguese class had booked to go to Rio for NYE but cancelled at the last minute because the idiots that he had reserved (not paid, clever boy) an apartment with decided at the last minute to double the price for the weekend, so he just didn't go. They could have made some money over the period, but because they got greedy (very common here) they lost a paying customer 2 days before NYE. Dumbasses.
Moral of the story: if you have some money, you want to invest in property, are willing to provide a decent level of furnished & all-inclusive accommodation and you're not a greedy motherfucker, you would make an absolute killing over here.
R$2700?!?! That is beyond ridiculous! Just wait till your Portuguese get good enough for you to tell 'em exactly what you think of their crappy apartments and bloated prices; then you'll have some fun.
ReplyDeletewow, well ... Living in Brazil is already expensive, and now that the country surpassed the UK as the sixth largest economy, everything will be more expensive here, including houses and apartments, not to mention that this is being calling as the ''golden decade'', and, at least until 2014, will still come and live here, more foreigners, so maybe this is a problem that lasts several years.
ReplyDeleteBoa sorte em conseguir um bom lar pra morar, espero que você consiga uma casa/apartamento bonita[o]! =)
Well, you, as a person from the first world (I was sure this kind of classification had fallen after the thawing of the Cold War) must know Michael Moore's Capitalism: a love story. He talks about the crisis in the States e in one part he shows a guy whose position is to be a condo vulture in real estate. It is not a trend exclusive in Brazil that house and apartment owners are greedy and will exploit their possessions anyway they can. They have no ethnic or national boundaaries, what you describe happening to you also happens to us, Brazilian who are looking for an affordable place to live. What I see in São Paulo is prices soaring and even shitty places as pricey as they can get. I understand your anger and frustration but your generalizations are a bit misguiding as to the origin of the problem.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, this blog does not seek to make a generalisation of Brazil at all. My experience is only of Sao Paulo - as I have stated several times before previously in my blog - and what I experience there. Most of the tone of what I write is either tongue-in-cheek or black humour. But I don't exaggerate.
ReplyDeleteOf course people in other countries get greedy and exploitative, but I have lived in and been to several countries and I've never been presented with an apartment WELL above market rate that clearly hasn't been cleaned in months and still has cockroaches lying around dead on the floor. And I've seen some shitty overpriced apartments, especially in London which is an incredibly expensive place to live, but never in that state.
The term 'first world' is never used where I come from, I learned it from Brazilians. I have heard them use it in London and here in Brazil repeatedly to describe where gringos come from. That is how it entered my vocabulary.
By the way, Michael Moore is not the best example of documentary filmmaker - his are usually heavily skewed in favour of whatever point he is badly trying to make and he always makes sure to draw plenty of attention to himself. There are better documentary filmmakers who don't seek to become celebrities and who actually present a balanced argument. He talks a lot of crap and exaggerates a lot.
ReplyDelete