Brazil may have once been notable only as the hideaway of train robber Ronnie Biggs but today it is blooming as a property hotspot for Brits according to the latest research from the country’s Central Bank.

Coastal allure - Brits invested £30 million into Brazil's holiday homes market in 2009

As Brazil’s economy has flourished during the global recession the latest figures – covering 2009 – show that £30.1 million was sent by UK residents to fund a Brazilian property. This includes paying deposits on purchases, mortgages and service charges.

In contrast, five years before (in 2004) just £4 million was sent, says commercial foreign exchange company Moneycorp, which reveals that enquiries about property in Brazil have increased by 40 per cent since it launched a money transfer service to Brazil eight months ago.

But interest in the country – which has a holiday homes market centred on its north-east coast near cities such as Recife, Natal and Fortaleza – is astonishing given how difficult the country’s banking and foreign exchange systems are to negotiate.

“The process for moving money into and out of Brazil is extremely bureaucratic, costly and time intensive, with UK investors losing out on an average of £5,000-£10,000 on exchange transactions” says Vasilios Dimarakis, Moneycorp’s head of overseas operations.

“This is because money is often held up by between a week and a month in Brazil while checks are made on the transaction and, during this period, the currency often fluctuates wildly and usually against the investor, unfortunately.

“Our service speeds up the transfers and secures a guaranteed delivery date for peace of mind, which helps our clients get the best deal possible when looking to invest in Brazil.”

The biggest reason why so many Brits are investing in Brazil is the strong Euro recently which, until this month, was almost at parity with the pound and made property investment in Europe more expensive than emerging markets such as Brazil. And the discount available on the Brazilian currency has obviously proved more tempting – one pound equals 2.69 reais at the moment.

But even £30 million is a snip compared to the money Brits were spending on foreign property during the boom years. For example, the Association of International Property Professional estimated that we lavished £20 billion on overseas homes during 2006 – just a year before the global property crash.

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