Rio de Janeiro's Bursting Real-Estate Bubble
- Rents in Rio's swankiest areas tumble as vacancies skyrocket
- Flood of projects before 2016 Olympics to add to oversupply
The 23-story Serrador building in Rio de Janeiro.
Photographer: Dado Galdieri/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
At opposite ends of downtown Rio de Janeiro, projects tied to Donald Trump and Eike Batista-- one a billionaire-turned-politician, the other Brazil’s most famous ex-billionaire -- have come to represent the city’s real estate bust.
The 23-story Serrador building, a granite-and-glass art deco tower near Rio’s Santos Dumont airport, has sat empty since Batista’s failed empire of commodities companies abandoned it last year. Four miles away, in the city’s gritty port district, an ambitious office project that Trump lent his name to is still nothing more than a weed-filled lot about a year after construction was slated to begin.