Rio Rents Reaching $9,300 Mask Sputtering Real Estate Market

Lucia Faro is working harder these days. For the past three years, the realtor was flooded with unsolicited calls from clients eager to buy apartments in Rio de Janeiro, the beachfront metropolis that will host the 2016 Olympics and some of Brazil’s 2014 World Cup games. Now, she is doing the calling, working her four phones most of the day, then organizing happy hours and advertising on social media sites to find potential clients.

“Buyers would just pour in until not too long ago,” says Faro, who has been selling new apartments in Rio’s beachside Barra da Tijuca neighborhood for five years. “Now, I have to chase them, and I’m offering bonuses in some cases to convince them to buy a unit.”