Minha Casa Minha Vida Investment arrives in Florianopolis

Historical origins were in the seventeenth century when Portuguese explorers fist came across the site. In 1714 the Portuguese crown boosted the small village by giving it official status under the name Nossa Senhora do Desterro and a further promotion was a dozen years later when the settlement was chartered as a town. From then on the area became more important, situated strategically as it was between Rio and Buenos Aires. But there is little doubt that the most significant boost to the town came in the 1740’s and 50’s when over six thousand immigrants arrived from the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores. From that time agriculture and associated industries really tool off. This included not just food crops but cotton and lined relate occupations too. In the early 19th century Brazil was in turmoil. At this time 'Desterro' as the town was called featured heavily in the civil strife and at one stage was briefly the national capital according to the Federalist party. The war was eventually won and the dictator Marshal Floriano took the country in an iron grip. At this point the town wanted to show loyalty to the new regime so changed its name to Florianopolis. The town and the state then settled down into the stability of the new Brazilian Republic, once the old monarchist days were well and truly over.

Nowadays most of the city is on the main island of Santa Catalina but it also includes some smaller islands and a stretch of the nearby mainland. Most of the people live on the northern and central part of the main island. Altogether Florianopolis has about 430,000 people, the wider metropolitan area doubles that total. The city is well-known throughout Brazil (and of course further a field) as having a very high standard of living. For this reason tourism is a very important local industry, especially for surfing and other types of maritime sport. As well as this, because of its excellent climate and facilities, Florianopolis is also developing rapidly as a 'second-home' vacation site for affluent people from Sao Paolo, Argentina, North America and Europe.

Of course tourism is not the only industry in the city’s economy. Information technology is a significant presence too and the sector is growing fast. In fact it is estimated that nearly forty IT companies either move to Florianopolis or are started up there. Government helps to boost technology by means of such initiatives as the Sapiens Science Park. This is the US $1.3bn idea of the Brazilian government. It’s a part of a much broader $24 Billion initiative to promote science and technology throughout the whole country. As regards the geography of the area, it’s fairly straightforward. There are two distinct seasons, warm and cool and although frost is rare it’s not unknown. There’s also quite a bit of rain distributed quite evenly throughout most of the year. Natural vegetation is represented by the surviving stretches of Atlantic Forest, widely mixed as regards species.

All in all this makes the city of Florianopolis an investment hotspot, especially with the arrival of the much anticipated Minha Casa Minha Vida affordable housing programme launching soon in this and other Brazilian cities