A severe housing shortage in Brazil means that IFAs and their clients are starting to be offered schemes that promise a 20% return against an investment threshold of £22,500.

“There is global interest in new housing developments across Brazil,” Acro Iris CEO Anthony Armstrong-Emery told OPP this week. “These are truly tremendous assets and it would be difficult to find a more certain exit strategy for an investment within 12 months.”

The Brazilian government launched the US$18 billion “Minhan Casa Minha Vida” (“My House My Life”) initiative to provide lower income Brazilians with a place to live. The current housing deficit is estimated at 7.9 million units and that figure is going to rise to 12.5 million by 2023.

This the first time many low income Brazilians can obtain mortgages and after eight days after launching the Acro Iris program in Natal over 25,000 families had signed up to purchase a home. With 70,000 people on a waiting list and only 2,000 properties there is clearly “a lot of scope for investment,” says the company.

Units are only pre-sold to families who have registered to take part in the “Minha Casa Minha Vida” government program and, because of its popularity, the majority of units are expected to be sold before completion.