Fortaleza Location

The county is 26,36 meters above sea level at 3º43'02"S of latitude e 38º32'35"W of longitude.
The county is much levelled with minor elevations.

Area

Fortaleza has an area of 336 square km. North of the city is the Atlantic Ocean, to the south are the counties of Pacatuba, Eusébio, Maracanaú and Itaitinga.

To the East it's the county of Aquiraz and the Atlantic Ocean and to west the county of Caucaia.

Climate and Temperature

Fortaleza has a warm and dry tropical climate with an average annual temperature of 27oC.

The relative air humidity is 77%, with an annual rainfall average of 1.378,3 millimeters (mm).

 

Why the North East?

Now, let us focus on why investing in the Northeast could be a dream come true. This region of Brazil is growing speedily with regards to economic factors such as export/import, tourism, real estate, natural resources  and energy.

The Northeast of Brazil can truly be described as the jewel that will far exceed all expectations to be the tropical paradise where Europeans spend and invest their Euros and Pounds. Portuguese, Spaniards, English French, Italians, Germans and Scandinavian are invading the region to do business, spend holidays or enjoy their retirement in a place with pleasant climate and at prices much more affordable than those in Europe.

This movement has had two positive impacts on the way the region is perceived by foreign investors. The first one is the increase in residential tourism. A few thousand foreigners are buying apartments and house this side of the Atlantic - as a second home or even to migrate there for a decent lifestyle. In Ceará, out of each ten new apartments for sale with prices over R$ 50,000, three are purchased by foreigners. In Rio Grande do Norte; the Europeans bought 40% of the new houses and apartments sold in 2010.

The other consequence of the influx is the explosion of investments by European companies in the hotel, touristic and real estate sectors of the Northeast. In the coast of Bahia, seven tourist complexes have planning permission and are to be built over the next two years.

Foreigners companies on the coast of Rio Grande do Norte will open 28 enterprises of medium and large size. In the next five years, the European investments in new hotels, resorts and condominiums should exceed R$ 4 billion (about US$ 1.8 billion), the equivalent to 8% of all foreigner investments that the entire Brazilian economy received in 2010.

Both groups of newcomers - investors and residents - are result of the same phenomenon, namely the increase in the flux of European tourists in the region. Since the 1990s, the number of foreigner visitors in Bahia, Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte has increased four fold. This increase has attracted the attention of well-known corporations and hotel groups in Europe, which decided to build the infrastructure necessary to serve their country fellows in Brazilian territory.

In Northeast, the tourists of today are definitely the immigrants of tomorrow. A good part of foreigners who buy houses in the coast of Northeast is composed of visitors who came for holidays and ended up enchanted with the life style, the scenery and the local climate. It was always a belief that tourism is a natural very forward to build stronger infrastructures not only of the Northeast, but also of entire Brazil. The country has varied sceneries, 2000 beaches and pleasant climate. In the Northeast over the last ten years, some problems in the transport and financial infrastructure have been solved to make it easy for people to invest. Over this period, new or refurbished roads, and works in basic sanitation, permitted the investment in condominiums and resorts in beaches located far away from overcrowded and expensive capital. 

With this heightened trade from tourism, efforts have been made towards the formation of qualified work force especially in the hospitality sectors. All the students of the cooking course of the Hotel School Senac in Natal have guaranteed jobs that are super because it shows that there is a steady improvement in incomes. Another measure of impact in tourism was the refurbishment of the airports in the region. With the improvements in the aiports, there was a growth in the number of both regular and chartered international flights leading to higher employment and less poverty. Today, the airports of Salvador, Natal and Fortaleza receive, combined, 105 international flights per week, twice as many as in 2003. As most of them are direct flights, an European who, last decade, had to spend twelve hours to arrive in the Northeast, after scales in Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, today takes only six hours to fly from Lisbon to Natal.

The prices of hotels in Brazil are low. A European who spends holidays in the Northeast spends less than he would in Mallorca, Spain, or Algarve, Portugal. The value of the money and how far it is going to go is a strong plus point when an European decides to buy a holiday house or start a life in Brazil, by opening a small hotel or restaurant. For the same price of an apartment of 100 sq.meters  in Madrid, a retired Spaniard can purchase two penthouses with four suites overlooking the sea in João Pessoa.  Europeans living overcrowded overpriced housing become enchanted with the possibility or purchasing large houses, near the beach, in a place where the sun shines all year long and fishermen sell lobsters for $ 17 per kilo. 

The purchase of property and land by foreigners has at least three benefits for the Northeast. The first one is the creation of new jobs. Statics show that each new foreigner who settles in the region creates, at least, three new jobs. The second effect is the increment of tourism; with a house in Brazil, the frequency of visits increase once they are spending on food, excursions, clothes etc. The third benefit is the change in the profile of tourists. Foreigners who come to stay in a resort of buy beach houses have a high purchasing power and spend more which has a knock on effect on everybody having that little bit extra money for themselves.

Since the last five years we have seen a steady value appreciation of these investments especially real estate geared towards tourism and golf. Numerous developments such as resorts  and hotels with beach front condominiums full of villas (in hundreds and sometimes in thousands) including golf courses have been built along every 100km or so throughout the 2500 km of the Northeast's Coast Line.

State of Ceara, with it's capital City of Fortaleza has attracted the most savvy  investors in the region fueled by the interest in the World Cup 2014. South America's largest water park is located here and the Pinto Martins International Airport is fit to accommodate a large amount of flights and is currently in an expansion stage to manage the crowds that will arrive in to watch soccer games.

There are at least four golf course developments under construction at this time and there is the largest tourism development in this country covering an area of 3100 hectares or 31 Million square meters well on its way. The evaluated grand total of this enormous undertaking is over U$D20 Billion. It is in the construction stage as well and is making excellent progress.

Another pre-approved project recently sold to an undisclosed investor a mid-size project of 1020 hectares with licenses for a Marina, 16 resorts, golf course, private airport, convention centre  and shopping mall. These are just the two largest developments in this state besides many others. Inside the City of Fortaleza buildings are popping up everywhere and the construction trade has received a very significant boost in demand (since 1998 to today 1000% growth). Vital to the Brazilian Culture is the nightlife with the various restaurants and bars which are great investments for those want to open up a new business, because they will easily make a go of it with some ingenuity and hard-work.

Finding a flight to Fortaleza

Looking for cheap flights to Brazil can be mammoth task because it is a popular destination and it can add up to the cost of an air-ticket considerably. There are however some things you can do to help secure your cheap flight to Brazil.

Flying from any US city direct flights are a good choice and one can take off from different airports for such as Miami or Atlanta. Miami is usually the cheapest airport to fly from as it is popular with many Brazilian immigrants living within the Miami area. A little tip here is to search online for travel agencies in the State of Florida (most are in Miami anyway) as they often have good deals on flying to Brazil.

If travelling from Canada it is a little bit more difficult because Canadians can only fly directly from Toronto. A cheap flying tip here is to investigate the possibility to fly to an American city that has a Brazilian connection.

For Europeans it is much easier to find cheap flights to Brazil, as there are many cities to fly out of on often direct flights. For European travellers, Lisbon is the best choice because there are more flights to Brazil from the Portuguese capital than anywhere else, and it is often cheaper flying from another European City to Lisbon for a connecting flight to Brazil.

One thing that must not be overlooked is the charter flight option to Brazil as these offer some cheap flights to Brazil that should be taken advantage of. A tip here is to consider flying to cities other than Rio or Sao Paulo and then carry on to your destination.

When doing research make sure you do not opt for the first cheap flight you come across. Make sure you visit four or five travel agents and compare prices before you commit to buying a ticket. If possible, try to keep yourself flexible as to the times of departure and once again going in the off seasons means you're going to find that you are going to get substantial savings.

The final tip for a cheap flight to Brazil is to consider flying to the two main cities of Rio or Sao Paulo and booking your own domestic flight at the airport. It is much cheaper than booking Brazil domestic flights online. If you wanted to fly from Miami to Fortaleza but find, the flight cost expensive. Consider flying from Miami to Rio then booking an in-country connection to Fortaleza.