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This article was originally written for the Brazil Max online magazine, the original of which can be read by clicking here.

The growth of the Brazilian property market in recent years has become internationally well recognised, despite slowdowns in the market place as a result of the brief recessionary period that the country experienced in 2008 and 2009.  This year has seen the housing industry get back on track to pre-crisis levels complemented by a range of favourable macro-economic factors including a solidified banking system (with increasing lending abilities), rising middle classes, public subsidies / grants and infrastructural improvements amongst several others.

In addition to new build developments that are virtually impossible to miss in most of the metropolitan regions of the country, the re-sale market is also gaining considerable pace.  This is attributed to the desire of homeowners to scale up their properties, release equity or simply move for a variety of reasons.

This rapid growth of the resale home market actually began in 2008 when, during the crisis, the Lopes organisation launched ‘Pronto!’ which was followed by the acquisition of several estate agency chains including Vila Nova Conceição e Plus (São Paulo), Self Imóveis (Rio de Janeiro) and Patrimóvel.  This was followed by a number of broadly similar moves by a number of the larger operations in the country looking to further market share.  According to Álvaro Soares, director of investor relations at the well established Brazil Brokers organisation who are looking to expand further into the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo markets: “the secondary market will become much more important – particularly if we consider that in ten years time the number of launches into the market will be slower than what exists today.”  In 2008, the company had sold R$ 1.80 billion’s worth of resale property in Brazil and first half of 2010 revenues reached R$ 1 billion.

In early September, Lopes also closed the purchase of 51% of São Paulo Maber Real Estate for R$ 17.2 million and have stated the possibility acquire the remaining 49% in the future.  According to Maurício Mith, now partner at Maber: “we considered approaching investment funds but we realised that the company was capitalised enough without such a need and we also wanted to utilise the established experience of Lopes.”

Coelho da Fonseca, who recently announced a joint venture with BCF Administradora de Imóveis, operating largely in the state of Rio de Janeiro also believe that agencies should not put all their eggs in one basket with regards to launches.  Indicating that a regular supply of new developments can be a problem, Luis Carlos Bulhões, executive director further states: “many of the big developers are increasingly investing in their own sales centres, which offer everything from unsold stock to new releases thereby eliminating the need for the real estate agency.”   The company has recently invested R$ 1 million on the mounting of the new headquarters and are creating medium-long term partnerships with large condominium managers.

Lello – another large franchise in Brazil – have chosen a more organically expansionary approach to their growth and plan to focus on branch expansion, particularly in the São Paulo region (which will have 15 stores by the close of 2010).  According Roseli Fernandes, director of real estate: “we plan to follow a trajectory of brand expansion along with the combination of modern technology and professional brokers who understand the local marketplaces in detail.”  Fernandes pointed to 20% growth in company revenues over the first part of 2010 when compared to the same period of 2009.   The Apolar real estate agency, with over 64 branches in Santa Catarina and Paraná, will also expand its scope into the São Paulo region, initially presenting over 3,000 properties for sale and 1,200 for lease.